The Dark Lady Rises
by cleotheo
Summary: When Voldemort returns to full strength at the end of the Triwizard Tournament things are about to change for the wizarding world. Especially for his daughter Hermione, who takes her place at his side as The Dark Lady. Dark Hermione! First part in The Dark Lady trilogy.
1. Prologue

**A/N – Welcome to the first part of my Dark Lady trilogy. The first part is all written and I'm about to start work on part two. For the time being updates will be twice a week (Monday's and Friday's), but they might speed up once the second part is well underway. **

**As the title suggests, this is a dark Hermione story and it's very much a Hermione centric story. The romance between Draco and Hermione really kicks into gear in the second part, but the seeds are sown in this part. While this part is rated T, the second and third parts will likely be rated M as the Dramione romance heats up. **

**The epilogue is quite short, but it just sets the scene of Voldemort's return. I hope people enjoy this as I really love writing dark Hermione and have plenty planned for parts two and three.**

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All of Hogwarts were gathered in the grounds as the final task of the Triwizard Tournament took place. The task had been going for nearly an hour and both the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum, and the Beuxbatons champion, Fleur Delacour, were out of the running. That meant the winner of the tournament would be one of the Hogwarts champions, Cedric Diggory or Harry Potter.

While both Cedric and Harry were well supported by the crowds, Cedric was the champion most people wanted to see emerge victorious. Being a Hufflepuff he obviously had them all behind him and the Slytherins would support anyone over a Gryffindor. The Ravenclaws were less petty than the Slytherins, but they were supporting Cedric since he was the official Hogwarts champion. Harry was actually underage to enter the tournament and his entire participation in the tournament was highly suspicious and had caused plenty of trouble in the last few months.

"Where are they?" Ron Weasley grumbled. "How long does it take to find a bloody cup?"

"I hardly doubt it's a straightforward maze." Hermione Granger snorted in reply. "They'll need all their magical abilities to reach the cup."

"It's boring to watch though." Ron pointed out. "We can't see how well Harry is doing."

Ron had barely finished speaking when there was a commotion down beside the maze. Since Hermione and Ron were sitting fairly close to the front, they immediately spotted their best friend. Harry wasn't alone however, as he was clutching at Cedric, who was lying motionless on the floor.

"Something's wrong." Hermione said to Ron. "Let's get down there."

As Hermione and Ron pushed their way down to their friends the cheering in the crowds started to subside. The second Harry appeared the crowds went wild, thinking they had a winner, but they were now realising something was wrong.

"Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, stay back." Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared in front of the pair, stopping them from getting any nearer to Harry.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, trying to see around McGonagall. "Is Harry okay?"

"He's fine." McGonagall reassured the duo.

"What about Cedric?" Hermione questioned. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Professor Moody escorting a clearly distraught Harry back towards the castle, but Cedric was still lying on the ground with his father clutching onto his body.

"He's not alright." McGonagall said quietly. "Professor Dumbledore will address the students later, but for now let's start heading back to your dorms."

Hermione and Ron did as McGonagall asked and joined the crowds heading back to the castle. All the talk was about what had happened and those closest to the front of the crowds were passing on what Harry was saying when he reappeared. According to the rumours, Harry was saying Voldemort was back and he'd killed Cedric.

"Do you think it's true?" Ron whispered to Hermione as they arrived back in Gryffindor Tower. "Do you think You Know Who is back?"

"I don't know." Hermione shrugged. "We'll just have to wait until Harry comes back and tells us the full story."

"I suppose." Ron conceded as Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom joined the pair.

While Ron was busy talking to the three boys Hermione stared into the fire and let her thoughts drift. Events hadn't quite gone as she'd expected, Harry was supposed to be dead not walking around shouting about Voldemort's return. Hermione could only hope that the rest of the nights plan had gone to plan and The Dark Lord was in fact back at full strength.

"Harry!" Ron's shout of joy jolted Hermione out of her thoughts a few minutes later.

Hermione snapped back to reality as a shaken Harry joined the group beside the fire. By this point the whole of Gryffindor Tower had gone silent as they waited to see what Harry would say.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"It was a port key." Harry answered quietly. "The cup was a port key, when we touched it we ended up in a graveyard. He's back." He declared, looking at Hermione and Ron. "Voldemort's back."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, making sure to hide her excitement.

Harry nodded as he began telling the story of what had happened at the graveyard. Hermione was thrilled to hear that Voldemort seemed to be back at full strength and he'd already gotten in touch with his inner circle of Death Eaters. From the sounds of things everything had ran accordingly to plan, apart from the fact Harry had somehow survived his encounter with Voldemort.

"How was the cup a port key?" Neville asked.

"Professor Moody." Harry answered. "He's not the real Moody, he's a Death Eater. He's been using Polyjuice Potion all year."

"I've always said he wasn't right in the head." Seamus muttered.

"What about Cedric?" Dean asked. "What happened to him?"

"Voldemort." Harry said quietly. "Cedric didn't even stand a chance."

"Why don't we let Harry rest." Hermione suggested, before the group bombarded him with more questions.

Harry smiled gratefully at Hermione as he stood up and headed towards the stairs. Once Harry was gone conversations erupted all across the common room. Leaving Ron to carry on talking with the boys, Hermione said goodnight and headed to bed. Her life was about to change completely and she wanted to be well rested for what was about to come.


	2. Making Plans

**A/N - I can't believe the overwhelming response I had to the prologue. Thank you all, I really appreciate the support. Anyway, enjoy the first real chapter of the story.**

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Hermione bounded into the house, excited to be home. The last week of school had dragged and with practically the whole school in mourning it had been a pretty depressing atmosphere to be around. Hermione hadn't been too affected by events, she hadn't known Cedric personally and while it was regrettable he'd gotten in the way casualties of war were to be expected now Voldemort was back. Hermione's main struggle had been to make sure Harry or Ron didn't see her bubbling excitement every time they mentioned Voldemort, but she was very good at hiding her true feelings and her friends didn't notice anything amiss about her behaviour.

"Where is he?" Hermione asked her mother as she followed her into the large entrance hall.

"Try the front room, sweetie." Hermione's mother, Kathleen, suggested with a smile.

Hermione went flying into the front room before coming to a stop in the centre of the room. Sitting on the sofa was a tall, pale man with dark brown, almost black, hair and menacing red eyes. Hermione knew the red eyes were a result of the magic that had been used to restore her father to full strength and return his magic. Spotting Hermione the man smiled and stood up quickly, holding his arms out for her.

"Daddy." Hermione cried happily, flying into the arms of the wizard known as Lord Voldemort.

Hermione took a minute to enjoy being in her father's arms. All her life her father had been a sick man, with barely the energy to move around their large house, but now he was the strong wizard she'd known was inside him all along. As she was growing up her father would tell her about the day he would be strong again and he'd promised her that from that day onwards he would gain control of the wizarding world and she would have everything her heart desired.

"The plan didn't work properly." Hermione said as she looked up at her father. "Harry's still alive."

A dark shadow passed over her father's face. "I know, but one day he'll meet his downfall. Sometimes in life we have to be patient."

Hermione nodded, knowing all too well her father's view on patience. Years ago he'd went to destroy Harry because of a prophecy he'd heard, but the entire thing backfired on him and he was left weak and defenceless. Without his magic and with a severely weakened body he knew he wouldn't be taken seriously by the wizarding world, so along with his wife and daughter he'd gone into hiding. For years he'd lived confined in the large house they owned, searching for a way to regain his strength and magic. Through the years he never got impatient, claiming that when the time was right he was find the answer to his problem. He'd tried a few different things over the years, like trying to get hold of the Philosopher's Stone in Hermione's first year, but eventually he found what he was looking for. What he was looking for was a spell designed to restore his magic and strength and it looked as though it had worked perfectly, his patience had finally paid off.

"Why don't you tell me about school, before dinner." Voldemort suggested. "Then your mother and I have something very important to discuss with you."

Hermione nodded and sitting down next to her father she began telling him about school.

**[][][][][]**

Lucius Malfoy was sitting with his wife, Narcissa, and son, Draco, when he felt his dark mark begin to burn. Since The Dark Lord's return nearly a fortnight ago his mark had been tingling more than normal, but this was the first time it had burnt since the night of his return.

"I have to go." He announced as he stood up. "The Dark Lord is calling."

Narcissa nodded and smiled encouragingly while Draco looked at his father in envy. Serving The Dark Lord was something Draco had longed to do for years and now Voldemort was back he couldn't wait until it was time for him to take the mark and fight alongside his father.

Gathering his wand and putting on his Death Eater robes, Lucius pressed his finger against the burning mark and he was instantly transported to where his Lord was waiting for him. Lucius arrived in a large study and he instantly realised the meeting was either a private one for him and Voldemort or it was just for his inner circle. So far a larger scale meeting hadn't occurred, and Lucius knew when it did happen it wouldn't take place in a study like the one he was standing in.

"There's no need for your robes and mask Lucius." Voldemort's voice called from behind the blond man.

Turning round Lucius lowered his head at the sight of Voldemort. "My Lord."

"Relax Lucius, we're just going to have a little chat." Voldemort chuckled. "Take off your robes and mask and sit down."

Lucius did as he was told and after sitting down Voldemort handed him a glass of firewhisky. The dark wizard then settled into the chair opposite Lucius and studied his follower. Despite the fact he'd managed to convince the right people he wasn't a supporter of the dark any longer, Voldemort knew Lucius was still as loyal to him as he was the day he received the mark. Even in his weakened state he'd known what was going on in the wizarding world, and he knew Lucius and his family were still loyal to him and his ways.

"Next week I'll be calling a full meeting of the Death Eaters." Voldemort announced. "I was hoping we could use the Manor as a base."

"It would be our honour, My Lord." Lucius replied, knowing he'd be the envy of every Death Eater as he played host to Voldemort.

"Things will be different this time around. I'm bringing my daughter on board." Voldemort said, chuckling slightly as Lucius openly gaped at him.

"I wasn't aware you had a daughter." Lucius said carefully, making sure he didn't offend Voldemort. He guessed the child was born before his disappearance years ago, but he'd never heard about her.

"For various reasons I kept her existence quiet." Voldemort replied. "While my other followers will know about my daughter and will obey her as they obey me, they won't know her identity. You are the only person I'm trusting with this information."

"How will the others follow her, if they don't know who she is?" Lucius questioned.

"She'll be attending meetings with me, but her identity will remain under wraps." Voldemort answered.

"May I ask about her mother?" Lucius asked hesitantly.

"Her mother is my wife, and we're still very much together." Voldemort said. "We never told anyone about our relationship because I didn't want the Order to target her. No-one needs to know about my wife, I'm trusting you with this information but it goes no further."

"Yes, My Lord." Lucius nodded, respecting the dark wizard's wish for privacy.

"Would you like to meet my daughter?" Voldemort asked as he stood up.

Lucius nodded as Voldemort headed towards a second door in the study. When the door opened a brunette girl entered the room and walked over to where Lucius was sitting. Lucius gasped with shock as he recognised the girl as Hermione Granger, muggleborn best friend to Harry Potter.

"Hello, Mr Malfoy." Hermione smirked, perching on a nearby chair.

"This is your daughter?" Lucius questioned Voldemort.

"Yes." Voldemort nodded and smiled proudly at his daughter. "This is my Hermione."

"I'm confused." Lucius muttered. "I was under the impression she was a muggleborn. And aren't you best friends with Harry Potter? You were at the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley's."

"I was with the Weasley's, and technically I am best friends with Harry." Hermione confirmed.

"Let me explain." Voldemort chuckled as Lucius continued to look puzzled. "After my disastrous trip to destroy the Potter boy, I was left weak and without magic. I returned to my wife and we moved here, where I've devoted my time to finding a cure to my problem. As Hermione got older we knew she couldn't attend Hogwarts as a Riddle, so with a bit of magic from my wife we pretended she was a muggleborn. We've got a childless couple nearby under a spell and the Granger's really think they have a daughter called Hermione who attends Hogwarts."

"Clever." Lucius nodded, impressed with how Voldemort and his wife had ensured their daughter attended Hogwarts. "Where does Potter fit into this?"

"That was coincidence." Hermione shrugged. "When the hat was sorting me I told it not to put me in Slytherin, which would have been suspicious. I expected to be sorted into Ravenclaw, but the hat put me in Gryffindor. I never meant to befriend Harry, but when the opportunity presented itself I grabbed it."

"And that may prove useful in the future." Voldemort said. "For now Hermione will carry on as normal when she's at school. It's not the right time to announce who she truly is."

"Something like that will need careful handling." Lucius said thoughtfully. "Dumbledore and the Order won't take lightly to having a traitor in their midst."

"That's not something we need to worry about just yet." Voldemort said. "As I said Hermione will carry on as normal in public, but in private she's going to become more involved in things."

"I don't want to sound rude, but I can't see the others taking orders off a schoolgirl, even if she is your daughter." Lucius said to Voldemort. He felt he needed to point out the potential problem to the wizard, even if it meant he angered Voldemort.

"That's one of the reasons I don't want her identity to be revealed." Voldemort replied. "The only thing my Death Eaters will know is that she's my daughter, they don't need to know how old she is."

"Very well." Lucius nodded.

"Hermione, you can leave now." Voldemort turned to his daughter. "I have a few more things I want to talk to Lucius about."

Hermione nodded and jumped up immediately. "Goodbye Mr Malfoy." She said with a smile.

"Goodbye, My Lady." Lucius inclined his head at the teenager, earning him an approving look from Voldemort.

Voldemort knew that if Lucius treated Hermione with such respect then the rest of the Death Eaters would follow suit. Her age wouldn't be an issue as only Lucius would know who she was and even then Voldemort was convinced his daughter would soon have the blond man confident in her abilities to lead his followers. Voldemort had raised Hermione to be a strong, confident witch and he knew there was enough of both him and her mother in her to ensure she had a dark streak that could rival his topmost men.

"I need a rundown of people's whereabouts." Voldemort told Lucius once they were alone. "I need to know who's still around and more importantly who can I trust."

"I'm afraid there's a great deal of our ranks in Azkaban." Lucius sighed. Before Voldemort had disappeared they had the odd person arrested but after he'd vanished a lot more were sent to prison.

"I read about a few of them." Voldemort nodded. While he may have been weak for many year he'd still kept abreast of the news in the wizarding world and knew a few of his more high profile followers were languishing in jail cells. "We can organise a break-out soon."

Lucius nodded and for the next half hour they discussed the people in prison as well as several Death Eaters Lucius had doubts over. While he'd managed to avoid prison and even kept a somewhat clean reputation by lying and bribing, he knew several former Death Eaters who had genuinely changed and wanted nothing else with do with Voldemort.

"What about Severus?" Voldemort questioned. "Can he be trusted?"

Severus Snape was currently teaching at Hogwarts and it had been him that had given Voldemort the information about the prophecy concerning Harry. Since his return he'd spoken briefly to Severus, but he wasn't sure where his loyalties lay after all these years. Severus claimed to be loyal to him and that he had Dumbledore's trust, meaning he could be a useful ally, but Voldemort wanted to be sure before placing his trust in him.

"I'd like to think Severus was loyal to us." Lucius replied. "But after spending so long with Dumbledore there has to be a sliver of doubt."

"My thoughts exactly." Voldemort nodded. "Until I've determined his loyalties, he won't be welcome in meetings where Hermione is. I can talk to him separate and work out if I can trust him."

After another ten minutes or so of talking Voldemort ended the meeting. After giving Lucius the time of the full meeting he let his right hand man go home while he went to spend the rest of his day with his wife and daughter.


	3. Hermione's first meeting

**A/N – I'm so pleased people are enjoying this story and I want to thank you all for the reviews/follows/favourites. **

**I've currently written about half of the second part (Which will be at least double the length of this part) and since it's going so well I'm going to be adding a day to my updates. So from now on I think I'll be updating on a Wednesday as well as a Monday and Friday. **

**Enjoy the update!**

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Hermione stood in front of her floor length mirror as she tried to compose herself and steady her nerves. She was about to attend her first Death Eater meeting and she was both excited and nervous at the same time. She'd always hoped that she'd get to attend meetings when her father regained his power, but she'd never expected the opportunity to come when she was still only fifteen.

Hermione had been totally blown away when her parents had approached her with the idea of attending meetings at her father's side the night she returned home from school. Hermione hadn't expected the offer so early, and she certainly hadn't expected to be allowed to attend the meetings as his daughter. Hermione had thought that when she was allowed to attend meetings it would be in a capacity like her mother. Hermione's mother was a high ranking Death Eater in her own right and she attended the meetings without anyone knowing of her relationship with Voldemort.

Taking a deep breath Hermione steadied her nerves and checked she was ready. She was wearing a long, deep red cloak with a concealment charm woven into the material. Once she had the hood of the cloak up, her face would be hidden from view and if by any chance someone managed to glimpse her face they wouldn't see what she really looked like. Her hand would be the only part of her visible so in honour of her dark heritage Hermione had painted her nails black and slipped on a ring that was shaped like her father's dark mark.

Satisfied she was ready, Hermione stored her wand inside her cloak and headed down to her father's study. Her mother had gone ahead to attend the meeting like any other Death Eater, so there was only Voldemort waiting for her when she entered the room.

"Are you ready, princess?" Voldemort asked.

Hermione pushed her nerves aside as she nodded at her father. "I'm ready."

"Good." Voldemort nodded. He knew Hermione had to be nervous about the night's events, but she hid it very well and he was very proud of her. "Let's go."

The floo network in Voldemort's study was set up and Voldemort handed Hermione a pot containing floo powder. Grabbing a handful of powder Hermione stepped into the fire and disappeared into the emerald flames. When she emerged from the fire at the other end of the journey she found herself in what she presumed to be Lucius's study.

Lucius had been waiting beside the fire for Hermione's arrival and he immediately helped the young witch into the room. As he brushed off the soot on her robes, he gave her a friendly welcome to his family home. Seconds later Voldemort emerged from the fire and the two wizards shook hands.

"Is everyone here?" Voldemort asked.

"Yes, we're using the large dining room." Lucius replied.

Voldemort nodded at Lucius, before turning to his daughter. "Are you ready?"

Hermione nodded before raising the hood on her cloak. The hood fell completely over her head and Hermione literally had to move her whole head to see the surrounding area. After Voldemort had checked the cloak sufficiently hid Hermione's identity, he gestured for Lucius to lead the way to the meeting.

Hermione walked next to her father as Lucius led them through the marble corridors of his family home. As they walked along Hermione wished she could get a better look at her surroundings. For years she'd heard Draco Malfoy bragging about his massive Manor house and how luxurious it was and she was keen to know if the blond Slytherin had been exaggerating. From the small bits she could see she thought, rather surprisingly, that it appeared as though he was actually being modest about his house and it was much larger and luxurious then even he boasted.

When Lucius stopped outside a pair of ornate double doors, Voldemort gave Hermione a moment to collect herself before giving permission for Lucius to enter the room. Lucius pushed open the doors and stepped aside to allow Voldemort and Hermione entry to the room. As they entered the room Hermione noticed that all the Death Eaters bowed their heads in respect for her father.

Once Voldemort was standing at the head of the table, he called for his followers to sit. Lucius took the seat on Voldemort's right hand side, while Hermione sat on his left. The rest of the table was comprised on Voldemort's top followers, the closer you sat to The Dark Lord the higher up in the pecking order you were, although their positions changed depending on his mood. The rest of his followers stood around the table, jostling for position.

"It's so very good to see so many of you." Voldemort greeted the group. "Obviously we are missing a few people, but I hope to rectify that situation as soon as possible. Today's meeting will just be a quick one, but we'll be very busy in the coming months."

Hermione watched from her seat as a buzz of excitement penetrated the air. It was fairly clear that without her father to guide them a lot of his Death Eaters had been bored and unfulfilled as they waited for him to return. Hopefully they wouldn't be bored any longer as she knew her father had a lot planned as he aimed to take over the wizarding world.

"First things first, I want to announce a new change to things." Voldemort said. "I want to introduce my daughter."

With a nod from her father, Hermione stood up and inclined her head at the gathered Death Eaters. Shock was reverberating around the room and she could hear the puzzled muttering that were taking place

"My daughter will be attending most meetings and her word is to be obeyed." Voldemort announced, his voice leaving no room for arguing. "She is just as much your leader as I am, and I expect you to respect her like you respect me."

Hermione waited for people to protest, but even though she could see several unhappy faces in the crowd no-one spoke up.

"On to other business." Voldemort said as Hermione retook her seat beside him. "As I've already mentioned we will be arranging for those in Azkaban to get an early release. I also want information on a prophecy I was told of years ago. I need to know if there's more to it than I heard."

Voldemort then spent a few minutes explaining about the prophecy that had ultimately led to his downfall. He was now convinced there was more to it than Severus told him, and he was determined not to make the mistake of rushing blindly in again.

"All prophecies are stored at the Ministry." Lucius told Voldemort. "They're kept in the Department of Mysteries, so they'll be hard to get to."

"Plus only a person who the prophecy is about can remove it from the vault." A Death Eater who worked at the Ministry informed Voldemort.

"I can't risk entering the Ministry." Voldemort mused. "I'll have to think of another way."

"You could get the other person the prophecy is about to get it for you." Hermione suggested.

"How are you going to get Potter to get the prophecy for you?" Lucius questioned.

"I have my ways." Voldemort smirked. He would inform Lucius of his plan when they were alone, but for now he was remaining quiet.

Hermione had told him about how Harry had dreamt about him at the beginning of fourth year and how his scar responded to his presence. Voldemort was planning on exploiting the connection and with Hermione's help he could manipulate Potter into doing exactly as he wanted.

Voldemort brought up a couple more things and asked a few more questions before announcing the meeting was over. However before he dismissed the group he made it clear that if Hermione's existence was leaked he would personally ensure that whoever betrayed him would never get the opportunity again. Hermione smirked at the terrified faces that accompanied her father's words and she wondered if she would ever exert that sort of fear over his followers.

Once the room was empty Voldemort and Hermione left with Lucius. This time they headed in another direction and Hermione was surprised to find they entered a living room where Narcissa and Draco were sitting. Hermione threw a worried look at her father, but he merely smiled at her and turned his attention to the Malfoy's.

"Narcissa, how lovely to see you again." He greeted Lucius's wife.

"You too, My Lord." Narcissa smiled. "We've missed you."

"Thank you." Voldemort smiled at Narcissa before turning to Draco. "And this must be Draco. You've grown since last time I saw you."

"My Lord." Draco dipped his head and shook Voldemort's hand when offered.

"So very respectful. I approve." Voldemort said to Lucius, who beamed proudly. Turning to Hermione, Voldemort ushered her forward "I should introduce my daughter. Narcissa, this is my daughter."

"It's very nice to meet you Miss Riddle." Narcissa smiled. She knew Voldemort was just being protective of his daughter and once he was sure her and Draco could be trusted they would find out her real name.

Hermione nodded her head at Narcissa and shook her hand, before her father was turning her to face Draco. At the sight of the blond Slytherin, Hermione couldn't help but smirk. She'd had a thing for Draco for as long as she could remember, but since she was posing as a muggleborn he quite rightly didn't look in her direction. In the last few years whenever Voldemort had told Hermione she could have whatever her hearts desires once he had power her mind automatically turned to Draco and now it looked like she could get what she wanted. As the Dark Lord's daughter he wouldn't dare turn her down if she wanted him, and that was something she intended to take advantage of at a later date.

"My Lady." Draco once again dipped his head in a show of respect, earning himself yet another approving look from Voldemort.

Hermione smiled at Draco, even though she knew he couldn't see her face. He seemed to be going all out to impress her father and she would place good money on his joining her father's ranks sooner rather than later.

"We must be going." Voldemort said, taking hold of Hermione's arm. "I'm sure we'll see you soon, Narcissa. Draco."

Voldemort inclined his head at the two Malfoy's and said goodbye before him and Hermione headed back to Lucius's study. Once there they flooed back home, where they found Hermione's mother waiting for them in Voldemort's study.

"So, what's the news?" Voldemort asked his wife.

As an ordinary Death Eater Kathleen was privy to the gossip that flowed through her husband's followers and she used her position to keep her husband abreast of what was going on. That way Voldemort always knew what his Death Eaters were up to and if he had any trouble makers in his midst.

"They're nervous." Kathleen replied. "The fact Hermione was hidden the entire time gave them cause for concern. But ultimately they trust you, therefore they'll learn to trust Hermione."

"Yes, I'm sure they will." Voldemort nodded. "They just need time to adjust."

"I'll keep my ears open for trouble." Kathleen said. "Now it's nearly dinner time so Hermione, will you go and change please."

Hermione went off to her bedroom and removed her cloak. Hanging it in her wardrobe she removed her ring and placed it in a secure jewellery box, before changing into more casual clothes. She then headed back downstairs where dinner was almost ready to be served.

"What do you know about Draco?" Voldemort asked his daughter as they began to eat.

"Not a lot." Hermione shrugged. "He doesn't like me because I'm a pretend muggle, a Gryffindor and friends with Harry."

"That's three plusses to his name." Voldemort chuckled. "Do you think he would make a good Death Eater?"

"Definitely." Hermione responded instantly. "He despises mudbloods and hates Harry. He's the coldest person I've ever met and when he wants something he's pretty ruthless."

"Surely you're not thinking of initiating him?" Kathleen questioned her husband. "He's only fifteen."

"As is Hermione, and she's going to be running things shortly." Voldemort pointed out.

"That's different, she's our daughter." Kathleen argued. "She's following her destiny as The Dark Lord's daughter."

"Relax, I'm not talking about giving him the mark now." Voldemort said. "I just see a lot of potential in him. I think he's going to be a valuable asset to us in the future."

Hermione nodded in agreement with her father. Putting aside the fact she fancied the blond Slytherin, she reckoned he would be a great asset to the Death Eaters and she hoped that one day soon he was able to gain his rightful place as a follower of her father.


	4. Grimmauld Place

The summer passed all too quickly for Hermione's liking and before she knew it she was packing to spend the last week of the holidays with the Weasley's. Ron had wrote weeks earlier asking if she wanted to spend almost a month with his family, but Hermione had written back and said a week was all she was able to spare. Hermione wasn't overly fond of having to The Burrow go anyway, but after talking with her father she accepted it was for the best. Firstly she needed to keep up the pretence of being a muggleborn and secondly she would be able to pass valuable information onto her father.

Over the summer they had kept a close eye on the newspapers and Voldemort was thrilled that the Ministry were denying Harry's claims about his return. Most people seemed to believe that Harry and Dumbledore had lost the plot, much to Voldemort's amusement. While Harry was coming across as an unstable young wizard being influenced by Dumbledore, Voldemort had arranged for the Dementors to pay him a visit. The subsequent incident had ended up in him having to attend a hearing to determine whether or not he was able to return to school. Eventually he'd been cleared to return, but the entire incident had left him looking even more unstable.

After packing her new school books and equipment Hermione set about packing her clothes. When she was at home she favoured dark, well-fitting clothes but at Hogwarts and when she visited her friends she wore slightly baggier clothes and favoured light, pastel shades. Overall the Hermione that attended Hogwarts, dressed very differently to the daughter of The Dark Lord.

Hermione had just finished packing when there was a knock on the door. Shouting for whoever it was to come in, Hermione beamed widely when her father entered the room. Hermione had spent all summer with her father, learning new spells and advanced magic from him and attending Death Eater meetings.

"Are you all packed, princess?" Voldemort asked.

"Yes." Hermione nodded. "I just wish I didn't have to go right now. I could be staying here and learning more magic."

"We'll have plenty of time for you to practice some more magic." Voldemort chuckled at Hermione's enthusiasm to learn new spells. "Right now, I need another set of eyes and ears within the Order."

"Another set. Who's your other spy?" Hermione questioned.

"Severus." Voldemort replied. "I'm still not sure if I can completely trust him, but he did inform us about Dumbledore reforming the Order."

"I guess." Hermione frowned. She still didn't completely trust that Snape was on their side, considering he'd spent years in Dumbledore's pocket.

"Anyway, enough about Severus. I have a present for you." Voldemort smiled at Hermione as he handed her a small dark blue box.

Hermione eagerly took the box from her father and opened it. Nestled on a bed of sapphire satin, lay a silver heart locket on a long silver chain. Hermione picked the locket up and turned it over in her hands.

"It's beautiful." She smiled. "Thank you."

"This is how you'll get home to attend meetings." Voldemort explained, opening the locket and revealing an emerald heart on one side and a ruby heart on the other side. "When I've set the meeting time, it'll appear on the back of the locket."

Voldemort shut his eyes and Hermione felt and saw the locket glow. When she turned it over there was an inscription on the back of the locket. The lettering simply read 'Hermione' and once Hermione had read it, it disappeared.

"Impressive." Hermione nodded. "But how does this locket enable me to leave Hogwarts?"

"I've enchanted the stones inside." Voldemort said. "All you have to do is be in a secluded place and when you press the emerald heart it will transport you to my study. From there you can floo to Malfoy Manor and attend meetings. When it's time for you to return to school you just press the ruby heart and it takes you back to the exact place you left from."

"Which is why I need to be somewhere secluded." Hermione said. If she was going to disappear and reappear she would have to ensure she was somewhere that no-one would see her.

"Exactly." Voldemort nodded. "I'll understand if you can't attend all the meetings, but I'll inform you of them all. Any you don't come to, I'll send you an owl to keep you up to date."

"Will it be written in invisible ink?" Hermione checked. Over the years when her father had written to her, his letters had been written in invisible ink and Hermione had read them in the privacy of her own dorm room using a spell her father had taught her.

"Of course." Voldemort nodded. "We can't risk anyone finding out the truth about you, it'll be too dangerous."

"Do you really think Dumbledore will hurt me?" Hermione asked. She knew both her parents were very worried about what would happen if Dumbledore discovered who she truly was.

"I honestly don't know." Voldemort admitted. "He might not hurt you, but he might kidnap you or try to brainwash you or something. All I know is that I'm not taking any risks with your safety. Your identity will remain a secret for the foreseeable future."

Hermione nodded in understanding as she slipped the necklace over her head. With the chain being long the silver heart came to rest halfway down her torso. Hermione knew her baggy clothes would hide the necklace and no-one would ever need to know she was wearing it.

**[][][][][]**

The following morning Hermione was in Diagon Alley to meet Ron and his mother, Molly. When Molly inquired about her parents Hermione claimed they had dropped her off before going to work. While her mother had a muggle couple under a spell that had them thinking she was their daughter, they tended not to use the Granger's too much. The couple had met the Weasley's once or twice, but Hermione often claimed her parents were busy people and just weren't available for socialising all that often. Hermione got the impression that Molly thought she was slightly neglected by her parents and she felt sorry for her, but Hermione didn't care about the pity as long as it stopped her asking questions.

"I need to get a few things, then we'll be heading back to Grimmauld Place." Molly declared as she shrank Hermione's luggage and gave it to Hermione to put in her cloak pocket.

"What's Grimmauld Place?" Hermione whispered to Ron. She was guessing it was somewhere to do with the Order, but since she wasn't supposed to know about the Order she played dumb.

"It's the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Ron replied. "We've been staying there most of the summer, it's so cool."

"What's the Order of the Phoenix?" Hermione asked.

Ron grinned at Hermione before telling her all about the Order and how Dumbledore had founded it to fight Voldemort. Hermione listened to Ron ramble on for a good ten minutes, before he paused and she decided to change the subject.

"Is Harry staying there?"

"Yeah, but he's spending most of his time in our room." Ron sighed. "He's been in a foul mood since he arrived and our Hogwarts letters didn't help."

"Why's he in a mood?" Hermione questioned. "I mean, I read about the Dementors and I know people don't believe him about You Know Who. But we believe in him and his hearing went well, he's allowed to come back to school."

"I know, but when he first arrived he was mad that I hadn't told him about the Order. Dumbledore wouldn't let me tell him, so he was mad that I'd been keeping things a secret from him." Ron replied. "Then after his hearing he was even more put out that Dumbledore didn't talk to him. Apparently Harry tried to talk to him, but he just walked away and ignored him."

"Well that's just rude." Hermione snorted, unimpressed with Dumbledore and his behaviour. "And what did you mean about our Hogwarts letter?"

"I take it you got your letter last week." Ron said.

"Yes, and I'm a prefect." Hermione beamed, genuinely happy with the news.

"Me too." Ron said, causing Hermione to look at him in surprise.

"Wow, that's great Ron." Hermione was totally surprised that Ron not Harry had gotten the male prefect position, although she was guessing that the news hadn't gone down well with Harry.

"Harry doesn't think so." Ron said, his smile fading. "He was rather put out that Dumbledore overlooked him."

"That's no reason for taking it out on you." Hermione stated. "Harry should know better than to be moody with us."

"Try telling him that." Ron snorted. "I've hardly gotten a civil word out of him for weeks. That's why I'm so glad to have you here to talk to."

Hermione smiled at Ron and she changed the subject back to the Order and how Ron had spent his summer. For the rest of the morning Ron told Hermione about the Order and the people involved as they followed Molly around while she did her shopping.

"Right let's get back." Molly said finally.

Taking hold of Ron in one hand Molly told Hermione to hold onto Ron as she prepared to apparate them to Grimmauld Place. Hermione held on tight to Ron and seconds later Molly whisked them away.

When they landed they were standing in the middle of what looked to be a muggle street. Before Hermione had a chance to question what was going on, Molly handed her a piece of paper and told her to read it. The paper held the words 'Twelve Grimmauld Place' and once Hermione had read them a house started to appear between two more.

"It's cool, isn't it?" Ron asked, clearly loving the magic of the place.

"It's very impressive." Hermione nodded, watching as the house settled as though it had always been there.

"Right, let's get inside." Molly called, ushering the teenagers on in front of her. "I've got to get lunch started so Ron, show Hermione around and tell her where's she's sleeping."

Hermione followed Ron into the dingy house and she couldn't help but curl her nose up in disgust. She knew the house belonged to Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and had been unused for years but she thought a better effort could have been made with the cleaning.

"The hallway's still a bit of a mess." Ron explained as Molly headed passed them and disappeared into the dark corridor that seemed to stretch forever. "The bedrooms are all spotless as is the kitchen, front room and library."

"There's a library?" Hermione questioned, wondering if she could find any useful books. Sirius's family had once been supporters of her father so there was likely some dark material knocking about the place.

"How did I know that would interest you?" Ron laughed. "I'll show you it when we get upstairs."

Leading Hermione into the front room, Ron showed her a comfortable living space that was perfectly clean. From there Ron lead her upstairs, where he showed her the library. Hermione was impressed with the space and planned to spend the next week exploring what it had to offer.

"You're sharing with Ginny." Ron explained as he led Hermione into a room with two beds. "Not that she's always here, mind you. Sometimes she just stays at The Burrow."

"Is that where she is now?" Hermione asked, removing her trunk and bag from her pocket and tapping them with her wand to undo the shrinking spell.

"Nah, I think she's downstairs." Ron shrugged. "Speaking of which, we should head back down for lunch."

As they left the bedroom, Ron pointed out the room he shared with Harry and the room the twins were using across the hall. When Hermione asked about Harry, Ron suggested they head downstairs and see if he was there and if he wasn't he reckoned they were best to just leave him alone.

As it turned out Harry was actually in the kitchen, sitting talking to Sirius and their former Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin. When Hermione entered the kitchen Harry rushed over to her and gave her a hug, before apologising to Ron. Ron quickly accepted Harry's apology and the two boys settled down at the table, leaving Hermione to wander over to where Ginny was sitting with a witch who was changing her appearance at will.

"Hermione, this is Tonks." Ginny said, introducing the pair. "She's a metamorphmagus."

"Really?" Hermione raised an impressed eyebrow.

"Show Hermione, some of the things you can do." Ginny encouraged Tonks as Hermione sat down.

Within minutes Hermione was laughing with Tonks and Ginny and asking questions about Tonks' abilities. Over the rest of the day Hermione discovered a bit more information about the Order as they unknowingly welcomed The Dark Lord's daughter into the fold.


	5. Back to School

Hermione's time at Grimmauld Place gradually got more frustrating as the week progressed and she was immensely relived when it was time to head back to school. After the initial burst of information she received on her first day she soon discovered that the adults barred the younger people in the house from attending meetings. Hermione, Harry and Ron had to watch as people came and went, all the time never knowing what was going on.

By the end of the week the only information Hermione had to pass onto her father was the location of the Order Headquarters and the people she knew were members of the Order. She had no idea what they were planning or even how much they knew about her father. All in all the week had been a big let-down, she hadn't even found anything interesting in the library as Molly had locked the dark books away.

"I'm so pleased to be out of there." Ron grumbled as the trio settled into a compartment on the train. "It was getting so annoying the way they never let us hear anything."

"I know." Harry grumbled in agreement with Ron. "Anyone would think we were five not fifteen."

Hermione settled back in her seat and watched the view from the window as Harry and Ron continued to gripe and moan about being banned from Order meetings. While Hermione shared the duo's frustrations she remained silent, not wanting to encourage even more complaints. Luckily the complaining dwindled off within half an hour and it was just like a normal train ride.

While Harry and Ron ate sweets and played exploding snap, Hermione curled up with her book. All the time she kept an eye on the time and when it was nearly time for the prefect's meeting she put her book away and stood up.

"Come on Ron, we need to go." Hermione said, looking at Harry warily. The prefect situation hadn't been mentioned since she arrived at Grimmauld Place, but Harry seemed okay with things now.

"Hopefully we won't be long." Ron said to Harry as he stood up.

"I'll be okay on my own for a bit." Harry replied. "You two better get going before you're late."

At the mention of being late Hermione frowned and practically dragged Ron from the compartment. Hermione led the way to the Prefect's carriage and when they entered they found the prefects for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were already present. Shortly after the two Gryffindors had taken their seats the doors opened again and the two Slytherin prefects entered the compartment.

"You've got to be kidding me." Ron grumbled to Hermione. "How did he get to be a prefect?"

The 'he' Ron was referring to was Draco and in all honesty Hermione was surprised that Ron was shocked by his role. After her Draco was by far the best student in their year and was a natural leader amongst the Slytherins. What surprised Hermione more was the female prefect for Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson. Pansy was a loud-mouthed, horrid, girl and Hermione failed to see how she was prefect material. In her opinion Daphne Greengrass would have been more suitable, Daphne's grades were better than Pansy's and she didn't look down on everyone outside of Slytherin like Pansy tended to do.

As the two Slytherins settled down in their seats, Hermione watched them and wondered if her opinions on Pansy weren't based slightly on jealously. Pansy was all over Draco and he had his arm casually draped over her shoulders as she cozied up to him. When Draco leant down and whispered something in Pansy's ear, causing her to giggle, Hermione looked away in disgust.

"Sickening, isn't it?" Ron whispered, also observing the two Slytherins. "The pug and the ferret, ugh. I suppose they are perfect for each other, but we don't need to see such gross displays of affection."

Hermione clenched her teeth when Ron mentioned Draco and Pansy being perfect for each other, but she had to agree the display of affection was horrible. Luckily she didn't have long to dwell on the two Slytherins as the Head Students entered the carriage and began to address the new prefects.

For half an hour the Head Students talked to the prefects, laying out their duties and passing the patrol schedule around. Hermione wasn't sure if she was relived or disappointed when all her patrols were with Ron. Part of her had been hoping that patrols would be mixed between the prefects and she would get to do the odd one with Draco, but then again since he thought she was a worthless muggleborn the experience wouldn't have exactly been a pleasant one.

When the meeting was dismissed, the eight prefects all exited the carriage and Hermione and Ron found themselves heading in the same direction as Draco and Pansy. Falling into step slightly behind the two Slytherins, Hermione tried not to stare at the couple. Unfortunately her eyes seemed glued to Draco, who still had his arm around Pansy and kept whispering to her. When the Slytherins reached their compartment Hermione winced as Draco's hand slid down to Pansy's backside as he ushered her into the carriage in front of him.

"Do you think they're shagging?" Ron asked Hermione as they passed the Slytherin compartment.

Hermione felt a surge of anger at the possibility, but she channelled her anger into a scathing look she threw Ron's way. "Honestly Ronald, it's none of our business."

Storming away from Ron she marched back to their compartment and practically threw herself in the corner. Harry raised a questioning eyebrow at Hermione, before turning his attention to a sheepish looking Ron who followed her into the compartment.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I didn't mean to upset you." Ron said, sitting down as far away from the brunette as he could get.

"You didn't upset me, I just think it's crass to discuss other people's sex lives." Hermione retorted, grabbing her book and effectively ending the conversation.

"Whose sex life were you discussing?" Harry whispered to Ron.

"Malfoy and Parkinson." Ron whispered back. "They were all over each other in the prefect meeting and on the way back to their compartment."

"Malfoy's a prefect?" Harry yelled in outrage. "That's not bloody fair."

"Tell me about it." Ron said, heartily agreeing with his friend. "I mean who in their right mind would let that git be a prefect?"

"The same person who thinks I'm unworthy of the position." Harry whispered sadly.

"I'm sure that's not the case." Hermione said, placing her book down. She'd been listening to the entire conversation and while she didn't want to defend Dumbledore she knew that's what she would do if she was really Harry's friend. "I'm sure Dumbledore has his reasons for not picking you as a prefect. In time I'm sure everything will become clear."

"Do you really think Dumbledore has some sort of plan regarding me?" Harry asked, deciphering Hermione's words in his own way.

"Yes." Hermione nodded, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at how easy Harry was pacified when it came to Dumbledore. Just the slightest inclination that the headmaster had a reason for his actions had Harry forgetting all about the cold shoulder he'd been receiving for the last few months.

Suddenly Harry's mood brightened again and he turned to Ron and began a conversation about Quidditch. Leaving the boys to their talking Hermione gathered her school clothes and headed off to the bathroom to change. By the time she returned the train had nearly reached Hogwarts and Harry and Ron were pulling their robes on.

Once the train stopped the trio quickly disembarked. After a quick hello to Hagrid, the three teenagers made their way to the queues for the carriages. In line they found themselves behind Ginny and a dreamy, blond girl she introduced as Luna Lovegood. When they reached the front of the queue, Hermione and Ron climbed up beside Ginny and Luna, before Hermione realised Harry was rooted to the spot, staring at the front of the carriage.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, looking around for something that could be bothering Harry.

"There's something strange pulling the carriage." Harry said, pointing at the skeleton like horse he could see.

"There's nothing there, mate." Ron said, looking at Harry as though he was mad. "The carriages are pulling themselves, like always."

Harry took a second look before climbing into the carriage with his friends. He knew he was right, but if he argued the point he would only risk appearing crazy and he didn't need anything else to help fan the rumours of his madness.

"I can see them too." Luna whispered to Harry once the carriage was moving.

"Really?" Harry asked. "How can we see them and no-one else can?"

"I don't know." Luna shrugged. "I've always been able to see them."

From her seat Hermione listened to the conversation between Harry and Luna before turning her attention to the front of the carriage. She couldn't see anything pulling the carriage, but she knew Harry wasn't crazy. If he'd seen some strange creature pulling the carriages then some strange creature was pulling the carriages. Idly she wondered if her father knew what pulled the coaches, she had to remember to ask him next time she wrote to him.

When they reached the castle the group alighted the coach and Hermione watched Harry as he stared at the front of the carriage again. However with the constant stream of students arriving at the castle he didn't have long to look at the strange creature as they were swept along with the crowds. Entering the school they followed the crowds to The Great Hall and took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"I hope the sorting is quick." Ron grumbled. "I'm starving."

"You're always starving." Hermione retorted with a roll of her eyes.

Ron grinned at Hermione and shrugged his shoulders, causing Harry to laugh quietly beside him. Hermione shook her head at the two boys, but managed to shoot them a small smile before she started to look around The Great Hall. Everything seemed the same as it was every year and Hermione was actually surprised there wasn't still some residual grief over events at the end of the previous year. However things seemed fairly cheerful and looking around the room you wouldn't think a dark wizard had just returned to full strength, clearly the majority of people believed the papers and believed Harry and Dumbledore had concocted the entire story about Voldemort.

Hermione's attention finally turned to the front of the room, once Dumbledore had stood up and called for silence. The sorting that followed was quick and boring and Hermione was relieved when it was over. When Dumbledore stood up to begin his start of term speech, Hermione smiled as Ron audibly groaned in dismay that his meal would have to wait a bit longer still.

However Dumbledore had barely started speaking when a stout, little witch he'd introduced as Professor Dolores Umbridge interrupted him. The fact that Dumbledore had been interrupted created interest amongst the bored student body and they all turned their attention to the Professor's table.

"Bloody hell, she was at my hearing." Harry hissed to Hermione and Ron. "She works for the Ministry."

"What's she doing here?" Ron frowned.

"Maybe if you two would shut up, we'd find out." Hermione said with a glare, before turning round and listening to Umbridge's speech.

Umbridge's speech was incredibly long and incredibly boring and by the end only Hermione was really listening. While the speech had been long and boring to most people, Hermione found it most intriguing. In a nutshell the Ministry were saying they didn't trust Dumbledore and Umbridge had been sent to check he was doing his job correctly. During her speech, Hermione had heard Harry telling Ron that Umbridge had accused him of lying about Voldemort and had voted against him returning to school. Hermione just hoped that meant that Umbridge would be against Dumbledore and with any luck she could find a way to rid Hogwarts of its foolish Headmaster.


	6. A Display of Loyalty

It was a week into the school term and so far Draco was thoroughly enjoying his fifth year at Hogwarts. Since starting school he'd enjoyed a good standing within Slytherin, and this year his importance had rocketed and he was now one of the top dogs down in the dungeons.

As a pureblood from an influential, rich family, Draco had immediately been someone to look out for upon his arrival at Hogwarts. For four years he'd enjoyed the deference that came his way from his housemates, just because he happened to be a Malfoy. This year however things had changed somewhat and within the purebloods the Malfoy name was even more important.

Almost everyone in Slytherin either had a family member associated with the Death Eaters or knew someone who was part of the group. As such the whole house knew that not only was Voldemort back, but he was holding meetings at Malfoy Manor and Lucius was his right hand man. Draco effortlessly took advantage of his father's position at Voldemort's side to gain more importance within the Slytherins and when he happened to mention he'd actually met Voldemort and shook his hand, his popularity skyrocketed even further.

While Draco basked in his new higher position within the Slytherins, he also had a few more reasons why he was enjoying fifth year so much. Firstly he was now a prefect, meaning he could throw his weight around outside of the dungeons. Potter was the first person he intended to target and over the course of the year he was going to make sure Dumbledore's golden boy lost his house plenty of points. Unfortunately Potter's best friends, Granger and Weasley, were also prefects, meaning they were immune to his position and he couldn't do anything to them. As unfortunate as that was Draco wasn't overly concerned, he would just have to find other friends of Potter's to take it out on.

The second thing that brightened up Draco's year was surprisingly the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. Professor Umbridge was actually quite annoying and Draco didn't actually like her all that much. What he did like was what she stood for and the reason she was at Hogwarts. Her speech at the welcoming feast had been extremely revealing and it was obvious that anyone who listened closely, like Draco did, that Umbridge was at Hogwarts to watch Dumbledore. A letter from Lucius that morning had just confirmed Draco's theory as his father told him to keep on Umbridge's good side and help her in whatever way he saw fit. Draco suspected that Lucius knew more than he was letting on regarding Umbridge and he hoped her presence at the school would spell the end of Dumbledore's reign as Headmaster.

The third and final reason Draco was enjoying the year was a purely personal one, his growing sexual experience. Draco was involved with Pansy, and while he certainly had no intention of getting serious with her he was more than happy to have his fun with her. While Pansy had made it clear she was up for anything Draco wanted to do he knew he would have to take things slowly with her. Pansy was a notorious gossip and he didn't want her spreading any rumours he was bad in bed, he wanted her telling everyone he was great.

Draco was so lost in thoughts about his good year, he failed to hear the door open and someone enter the dorm room. It wasn't until Theo Nott stepped in front of him that Draco realised he wasn't alone.

"Blaise and I are going for a fly." Theo said. "Do you want to come?"

"Sure." Draco nodded. "Let me grab my broom."

Draco knew that Theo most likely wanted to go for a fly as Quidditch try-out were taking place the following week and he was desperate to get on the team. He had hoped to get on the team the previous year but with The Triwizard Tournament being held there had been no Quidditch and Theo was left disappointed.

"Draco, can I ask you something?" Theo asked hesitantly as Draco grabbed his broom.

"Yeah." Draco replied, turning around to face his friend.

"Have you really met The Dark Lord?"

Draco was surprised that Theo was doubting him, but he decided not to ask him why he didn't believe him. "Yes, I've told you. His meetings are held at the Manor and I've met him in person."

"Was he alone?" Theo asked.

"Yes." Draco lied, wondering why Theo was suddenly asking about Voldemort.

"So his daughter wasn't with him?" Theo questioned, watching Draco closely for his reaction.

Draco was aware of Theo's scrutiny, but luckily his normal mask of indifference hid his shock. "Daughter?" He frowned, looking puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

Theo smirked widely as he realised that for once he knew something Draco didn't. While Draco was his friend and he honestly liked him, sometimes he could be an infuriating smug git, constantly bragging about something or other. For the past week Theo had been totally sick of Draco getting all the attention, just because he happened to have met The Dark Lord personally.

"Do you really not know?" Theo questioned, his smirk growing wider by the second.

"Know what?" Draco snapped. "What are you talking about Theo?"

"The Dark Lord has a daughter." Theo whispered, even though they were the only two in the room. "She attends meetings with him and apparently she practically runs things alongside The Dark Lord."

"Who told you that?" Draco asked.

"No-one." Theo shrugged. "I overheard my parents talking."

"I know nothing about a daughter." Draco shrugged. "I've never seen her at the Manor."

"Maybe he's keeping her a secret and only allowing his followers to know about her." Theo suggested.

"Maybe." Draco replied. He knew Theo was trying to goad him by telling him something he supposedly didn't know but he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of rising to the bait. "Now are we going for a fly or not?"

Theo nodded and grabbed his and Blaise's broom before the two teenagers left the room. As he headed out to the Quidditch pitch, Draco was faced with a dilemma regarding what Theo had told him. Theo was his friend and he didn't want to get him into trouble but he knew stuff about The Dark Lord he shouldn't know. Draco and Narcissa only knew about Voldemort's daughter because he trusted Lucius, but Draco knew for a fact that the rest of his Death Eaters had been sworn to secrecy.

"Come on, Draco." Blaise Zabini called, dragging Draco out of his thoughts. "Get up here."

Pushing aside the dilemma he faced, Draco mounted his broom and flew into the sky to meet his friends. He would worry about what to do about Theo later, for now he would just enjoy his weekend with his friends.

**[][][][][]**

After sleeping on it for the night Draco decided he needed to inform Voldemort that his secret was out. As much as Theo was his friend, his loyalties had to lie with the wizard he one day hoped to serve. Hopefully by telling Voldemort about Theo, he could prevent more people finding out about his daughter and prove how useful he could be.

Draco decided the easiest way of informing Voldemort was passing the message along to his father. After writing a letter to Lucius, explaining about his conversation with Theo and asking his father to try and ensure Theo himself wasn't punished, Draco set off for the owlrey.

When he arrived at the owlrey he was unimpressed to find Hermione Granger attaching a letter to a school owl. Blatantly ignoring the mudblood, Draco called for his own eagle owl. After attaching the letter to his owl's foot, he gave it a few strokes before walking over to the window and letting it fly away. When he turned back around he found Hermione was still in the owlrey, watching him as she fussed over the owl perched on her arm.

"What are you looking at mudblood?" Draco sneered.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Draco, before pushing past him and releasing her own bird. As he left the owlrey Draco chuckled to himself as he heard Hermione call him a git under her breath, it was so nice to make the right impression on some people.

After leaving the owlrey Draco felt as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He knew he'd done the right thing in writing to his father. All he could do now was hope that Theo didn't get unfairly punished, after all the only thing he'd done was pass on something he'd heard. If anyone needed to be punished it should be Theo's father.

**[][][][][]**

Voldemort was sitting in his study, when Kathleen entered and announced that Lucius was here to see him. The previous week after Hermione had gone back to school Voldemort had invited Lucius and Narcissa over to dinner and introduced them to Kathleen. The couple had decided that they trusted the Malfoy's and it would be easier if they knew who Voldemort was married to. They had also told Narcissa who Hermione was, but had made her promise to keep it a secret, even from Draco. Voldemort had decided he trusted Draco, but with him and Hermione going to school together he didn't want to risk either of them revealing her true identity if they became friendly.

Voldemort was puzzled over Lucius' sudden appearance and when the blond man entered his study with a serious expression he began to get worried. Since his return to full power everything had ran smoothly and they were currently working on a plan of attack to release those in Azkaban, so a worried Lucius showing up was cause for alarm.

"What's the problem?" Voldemort asked, getting straight to the point.

"Read this." Lucius handed Voldemort a letter and sat down to wait until he had finished reading.

Voldemort read the letter from Draco with a mixture of feelings. Firstly he was immensely impressed with Draco and his loyalty to him, not to mention the concern he had shown about his friend being punished. Secondly, he was fuming that Nott had gone against his explicit instructions and spoken about Hermione.

"I appreciate you bringing this to my attention." Voldemort told Lucius as he handed the letter back to him. "And I appreciate Draco's loyalties, which won't be forgotten. You can let him know how happy I am with him."

"Yes, My Lord." Lucius nodded, feeling immensely proud of his son. "What are you going to do about Nott?"

"Obviously he needs to be punished, but I do appreciate Draco's point about his son not deserving any comeback on him." Voldemort answered. "What I need to do is find a way to discover Nott had told his wife about Hermione without compromising Draco or Nott Jr."

"May I suggest you just pay her a visit. Nott's wife is one of the worst liars I've ever come across. She'll either crack under questioning or a bit of basic probing of her memories will probably tell you what you want to know."

Voldemort smiled at Lucius's idea, it could work perfectly. All he had to do was claim to be there to see Nott and when he spoke to his wife she revealed she knew about his daughter. That way Nott would be punished, and no-one need ever know Draco was his original source of information.

"Thank you Lucius, that information will be most helpful."

"Anything to help, My Lord." Lucius replied. "Is there anything else you need, while I'm here?"

"I don't think so." Voldemort said. "I'll be in touch when I've spoken to Nott's wife and we can arrange a meeting to deal with Nott himself."

"Will it be a private meeting?" Lucius asked as he stood up.

"I think not." Voldemort smirked. "Nott needs to be made an example of, his punishment will be dished up in front of everyone. People need to learn not to gossip about my daughter."


	7. Punishment

Hermione had been back at school for nearly a fortnight before her father sent her the time and date for a Death Eater meeting. Hermione was thrilled to receive the message and instantly vowed to do whatever it took to attend. So far school hadn't proved overly exciting and Hermione was eager for anything that would add some excitement in her life.

In the time since they'd been back the only semi-interesting things that had happened had been in Defence Against the Dark Arts. In the first lesson of the year Umbridge made it clear to everyone that the Ministry believed Harry and Dumbledore were lying, therefore there would be no need to teach any practical magic, her lessons would be purely theoretical. While that made for some boring lessons, her constant dismissal of Harry's arguments regarding Voldemort proved entertaining.

Despite only been back at school a few weeks, Harry was practically a pariah. Even one of Harry's dorm mates, Seamus Finnegan, had accused him of lying and he'd had a go at Harry claiming that his lies had nearly made his mother refuse to allow him to come back to Hogwarts. Seamus's opinions of Harry lying were echoed throughout the school and barely a day went by without someone hurling abuse at him.

The only other glimmer of entertainment Hermione had experienced was a very brief encounter with Draco up in the owlrey. The entire exchange had only lasted a few seconds as he snarled an insult at her, but Hermione had been pleased by the event. The fact that they were alone meant he didn't have any of his Slytherins friends to impress or her friends to wind up, meaning the insult was genuine and wasn't staged to make him look nastier than he was. While Hermione wasn't over keen on being insulted, she was pleased that Draco thought so little of muggleborns and automatically dismissed her because he thought she was one.

Not wanting to let herself get distracted by thoughts of Draco, Hermione dismissed the blond from her mind and gathered up her bag. Heading down to the common room, she found Harry and Ron settled in the corner playing wizard's chess.

"I'm off to the library for a couple of hours." She told the duo.

"Have fun." Ron mumbled, not looking up from the chess board.

"See you later." Harry smiled briefly at Hermione, before turning his attention back to the board.

Satisfied the boys would be occupied for most of the evening Hermione left the common room. Instead of heading to the library however she took a secret passage to the fourth floor and headed towards an abandoned classroom at the end of the corridor. The door to the classroom was locked, but Hermione quickly opened it with magic and slipped inside. Once inside the classroom she relocked the door and pulled her locket out from under her jumper.

"I hope this works." Hermione muttered to herself as she opened the locket and pressed her thumb over the emerald stone.

Hermione felt a sharp tug in her stomach, similar to the feeling of apparition, and for a second the world went black around her. When the blackness disappeared Hermione found herself standing in the familiar room of her father's study.

"You're here." Voldemort beamed, from his seat behind the desk.

"Yes, I'm here." Hermione nodded, thrilled the locket had done its job.

"Before we go to the Manor, I want to talk to you." Voldemort said to his daughter. "Sit down."

Hermione sat down as Voldemort told her all about the letter Lucius had received from Draco. He then told her how he visited the Nott house and tricked Mrs Nott into asking about his daughter.

"What have you done about him?" Hermione asked. While she was angry that her father's instructions had been ignored by Nott, she was impressed by Draco's loyalties to them.

"Nothing, yet." Voldemort replied. "I was wondering if you wanted to teach him a lesson at the meeting. It will show everyone not to mess with you and reinforce my instructions not to speak out of place."

"What do you want me to do?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing too bad, I was thinking using the Cruciatius curse on Nott would be a sufficient lesson."

Hermione nodded as she bit her lip nervously. She'd practised the curse over the summer and knew how to make it hurt, but she'd never used it one anyone and was nervous about doing so. If she messed up in front of the Death Eaters she would never live it down and they would never take her seriously.

"You don't have to do this, if you're not ready." Voldemort said, sensing Hermione's nervousness.

"No, I'm going to do it." Hermione said determinedly. This was her chance to prove she was just as formidable as her father and she was going to grab it with both hands.

"Excellent." Voldemort beamed proudly at Hermione. He understood her nerves, but he was pleased she'd overcome then and decided to show just how powerful she really was.

Voldemort's obvious pride helped settle Hermione's nerves as she opened a cupboard in her father's study and pulled out her long, deep red cloak. Once she had the cloak on, she placed her ring on her finger and waved her wand over her nails, painting them blood red. Satisfied she was ready Hermione placed her wand inside her cloak and followed her father over to the fire where they flooed to Malfoy Manor.

Upon arrival at the Manor, Lucius greeted them both and once Hermione had raised the hood on her cloak they set off for the dining room. Unlike all the previous meetings, where the long dining room table had been in the centre of the room, the room was bare when Hermione followed her father and Lucius into it. The Death Eaters were all standing around the room and Hermione could sense the nervous atmosphere in the room, this was a very different meeting and everyone knew it.

"It has come to my attention that a certain person has been talking out of turn." Voldemort started, walking into the centre of the room. "It has always been understood that what happens in a meeting, stays in a meeting. And I will not tolerate people speaking out of turn, especially about my daughter."

A quiet ripple of conversation went around the gathered crowds and from the nervous looks on a few people's faces Hermione guessed that more than Nott had been speaking about her. She just hoped that the rumours wouldn't go any further and the Order wouldn't hear them.

"Nott!" Voldemort bellowed. "Get out here."

Hermione watched as Nott hesitantly stepped forward, until he was standing on front of her father. With his silver mask in place and his hood up Hermione couldn't see her face, but she could imagine the fear that was etched onto his features. A second later she could see the fear as her father reached forwards and tugged the silver mask off his Death Eater before throwing it to the floor in disgust

"You've been speaking out of line, Nott." Voldemort hissed, his voice low and dangerous. "You're wife knows about my daughter."

"I'm sorry My Lord, it just slipped out." Nott apologised. "I didn't mean to talk."

"It's too late for apologies now." Voldemort shrugged. "You must be punished."

Nott hung his head and waited for the punishment to occur, but to everyone's surprise Voldemort backed away before walking over to his daughter and standing beside her. Voldemort gave Hermione a little nudge and a reassuring smile as she stepped forward. Hermione nodded at her father before she sought out her mother in the crowds, after a reassuring nod from her she strode purposefully into the centre of the room.

Making sure she had the entire room's attention Hermione slowly withdrew her wand and pointed it at Nott. The Death Eater gulped nervously, but to his credit he didn't attempt to shy away, he merely stood in front of Hermione waiting to receive his punishment.

"I'm sorry, My Lady." He whispered, his quiet voice clearly audible in the silent room.

Hermione nodded in acceptance of the apology, before steadying her arm. "Crucio!"

Nott dropped to his knees as the pain coursed through his body. Hermione kept her wand pointed firmly at the writhing man, knowing she couldn't show any sign of weakness. She was sure her father's curse would have been far worse to endure, but she was clearly causing Nott some pain and more importantly all the Death Eaters were watching her ruthlessly torture a man without flinching.

Hermione continued to torture Nott for nearly ten minutes. A couple of times he cried out with the pain and Hermione was surprised to find the noises gave her a warm glow inside. Eventually deciding Nott had been punished enough, Hermione dropped her wand.

"Let that be a lesson to you all." She announced to the room. "We will not tolerate people speaking out of turn."

Turning around Hermione nodded to her father, who was smirking proudly beside Lucius. Voldemort stepped forward and after reminding the Death Eaters once again to keep quiet about their business, and more importantly Hermione, he dismissed them. As the Death Eaters left several of them bowed respectfully at Hermione as they passed her on the way to the exit.

"I think people will think twice before gossiping again." Lucius chuckled once the room was empty.

"Yes, I think they will." Voldemort said. "That was very impressive Hermione."

Hermione pushed back the hood of her cloak and beamed at her father and Lucius. "Thank you."

"I take it you enjoyed it." Voldemort said, taking note of his daughter's exhilarated expression.

"Yes." Hermione nodded. "It made me feel so powerful."

"As long as you remember not to abuse that power." Voldemort told his daughter. "It's all very well using your power to keep people in line, but you must be careful not to over exert it. You want people to be wary and possibly a bit scared of you, you don't want them to hate you. People who hate you are more likely to turn on you and betray you."

"I understand." Hermione nodded. "While you need to punish the bad behaviour, you also need to reward the good."

"Exactly." Voldemort smiled at Hermione, pleased she was learning so quickly. "You should probably be getting back to school. I've got a few more things to discuss with Lucius, so tell your mother I'll be back in an hour or so."

Hermione nodded and said goodbye to her father and Lucius before making her way back to Lucius's study. From there she flooed home and took off her cloak and replaced it in the cupboard. She then removed her ring and placed it with her cloak and removed her dark nail varnish, leaving her nails clear of any colour.

Before heading back to school she found her mother and passed on her father's message. She also took a few minutes to talk to her mother, who expressed how proud she was of Hermione and how strong she had appeared. Thanking her mother, and making arrangements to write soon, Hermione opened her locket and transported herself back to school.

Once back at school Hermione stayed in the empty classroom for nearly ten minutes, calming herself down and trying to stop smiling. If she went back to Gryffindor Tower so obviously hyped up, Harry and Ron would ask questions and as much as she loved to read she doubted an evening in the library could get her so stimulated.

Eventually Hermione had calmed down enough to sneak out of the classroom and head back to Gryffindor Tower. When she arrived in the common room she found Harry and Ron in the same corner, looking as though they hadn't moved. When she approached them, they seemed surprised to see her and were quite shocked when she told them she'd been gone for a good couple of hours.

Leaving the boys playing chess, Hermione said goodnight and headed off to bed. Once she was in bed, with the ruby hangings drawn around her, she lay awake for hours reliving the night's events. After tonight she'd surely proven herself to her father's followers and hopefully that would make things easier in the future as she became more involved in her father's plans.


	8. Forming Organisations

**A/N - Thanks for all the great reviews and support for The Dark Lady Rises. I just wanted to let people know that this trilogy will be long, far longer than I ever imagined it to be. I've just finished part two, it has forty one chapters and is the longest thing I've ever written. I'm just about to start on part three, and have no idea how long it will end up until I near the end of the story. I just hope people are interested in such a long tale as I'm really enjoting writing it. **

**I also just want to mention a few points that have came from reviews. I know people are looking forward to Draco discovering who Hermione is, but that doesn't happen until Hermione is ready for him to know, which isn't until the beginning of part 2. However, there is still some nice interaction between them in this part. Someone also wanted to know why Hermione is in Gryffindor, not Slytherin. That will be explained in a conversation between Hermione and Draco, once he discovers who she is. **

* * *

Defence Against the Dark Arts quickly became one of Draco's favourite lessons, and not for lesson content which was actually very poor. Umbridge's decision not to teach practical magic may have infuriated some people, but Draco took it all in his stride. Lucius had long since taught him that as well as being adept at dark magic he should know how to defend himself from it, so Draco practised on his own and could do almost every spell they read about in class.

While the lessons content may have been lacking the entertainment wasn't. Nearly every lesson Potter made a fuss about not learning how to cast the spells, meaning nearly every lesson he ended up in trouble with Umbridge. Draco was actually quite surprised that Potter hadn't seemed to learn his lesson and just keep quiet during Umbridge's lessons, but if he was stupid enough to annoy the woman every class then Draco wasn't going to complain about the amusing results.

While Umbridge's motives for being at Hogwarts had been clear to Draco from the beginning, it seemed to take an eternity for her to start to exert her power. About a month after school started a statement was released from the Ministry announcing Umbridge's position as High Inquisitor at Hogwarts. The position basically gave her the power to check up on other Professors and make sure they were doing their job right.

While her appointment was met by outrage by most of the school the Slytherins just sat back and watched the fireworks. Within a week she'd introduced numerous educational decrees, banning all sorts of behaviour and activities. When she banned groups of students from meeting without her permission, which would include Quidditch teams, there was outrage. The Slytherin Quidditch team was granted permission to meet almost straight away but Umbridge took weeks to approve the Gryffindor team, meaning they lost a good couple of weeks practice time.

One morning in mid-November Draco was sitting eating breakfast with Crabbe, Goyle, Theo and Blaise when Pansy came flying into the hall carrying a flyer. Shoving Crabbe out of the way Pansy squeezed onto the bench besides Draco and handed him the flyer.

"What's this?" Draco asked, barely looking at whatever junk Pansy had handed him.

"It was in the common room." Pansy answered. "Umbridge's putting together an Inquisitorial Squad to help her make sure her rules are being followed. Apparently the positions will even trump prefects."

Suddenly interested Draco looked down at the flyer in his hands. Pansy was right Umbridge was looking for volunteers and those volunteers would be a rank above normal prefects. Draco smirked as he realised that meant he would be able to dock points from Weasley and Granger as well as Potter. Draco was thrilled with the possibility of more power, but he was less happy about Pansy continuing to hang around him. He was beginning to think she was getting ideas about some sort of big romance brewing between them and he knew he would have to set her straight. However since they hadn't actually had sex yet, he was putting off talking to her. He could put up with her hanging around him for a little while longer.

"We should do this." He said to his friends.

"Why?" Blaise groaned. "I don't like responsibility, I like to be free."

"You'll not exactly have to do much." Draco pointed out. "Just look out for Gryffindors and dock points from them. I'm sure they'll be breaking the rules just by existing."

"I'm up for it." Pansy said, wrapping her hand around Draco's arm.

"Blaise, Theo, are you in?" Draco looked questioningly at his friends. He knew Crabbe and Goyle would just do as he told them but Blaise and Theo actually had minds of their own and he couldn't just assume they were on board with his idea.

"Go on then, it could be fun." Theo nodded.

"I suppose I'm in." Blaise sighed. "But I'm telling you now, this better not interfere with my social life."

"I'm sure it won't." Draco rolled his eyes at his friend. "Come on, let's go and join up before first lessons begins."

Leading the way Draco marched out of The Great Hall and headed for Umbridge's office. Umbridge was thrilled by the volunteers and immediately handed them all places on her Inquisitorial Squad. When Umbridge mention knowing Lucius and said she would be sure to inform him of Draco's dedication to the cause, Draco inwardly smiled to himself. If Umbridge praised him to Lucius, his father might mention it to Voldemort and it would be another plus against his name.

Draco and his friends left Umbridge's office with small 'I' pins on their cloaks and the power to take points off those who broke the rules.

**[][][][][]**

"You'll never believe what that git Malfoy has done." Ron yelled as he stormed into the common room and flounced over to where Hermione and Harry were sitting beside the fire.

"Let's guess, he's taken points off you." Hermione said.

"Yes." Ron exclaimed. "How did you know?"

"He did the same to me yesterday." Hermione shrugged.

"What did you do?" Harry asked.

"Existed." Hermione replied. "He did mention breaking some sort of rule, but personally I think he just made one up on the spot when he spotted me."

"How can he take points off us, that's what I want to know." Ron complained. "I mean, we're prefects as well."

"Yes, but Inquisitorial Squad trumps prefects." Hermione answered. "Umbridge has given them all sorts of power."

"Great. That's just what we need running around school, a bunch of power crazed Slytherins." Harry mumbled.

"What else is new?" Ron snorted. "Slytherins are always power crazed, just look at the Death Eaters."

Hermione had to bite her lip to stop from retorting and saying that not all Death Eaters were former Slytherins. Over the summer as she'd gotten more involved with her father she'd been surprised by some of the people who had the mark. A few names she'd recognised from school and when she'd asked her father had told her that the students she went to school with were relatives of the Death Eaters in question. As such Hermione now knew that Slytherins weren't the only ones with connections to the Death Eaters, several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were connected to the dark and she'd even found a few Gryffindors associated with her father. Hermione knew that if Harry and Ron knew exactly who was involved with her father they would be deeply shocked and probably distrusting towards almost everyone.

"Hermione, can you help?" Harry questioned, drawing Hermione's attention back to the two boys.

In the time Hermione had been thinking both Harry and Ron had pulled out their homework and were trying to complete their Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. While both boys had their books to help them they were both struggling to understand things without having the practical experience of performing the spells.

"This is impossible." Ron moaned as Hermione tried to explain the spell they were studying and how it worked. "How on earth are we meant to pass out exams with no practice? We're going to be in a right mess by the end of the year."

"Ron's right." Harry sighed, dropping his quill and leaning back on the sofa. "We need practical lessons, not the rubbish Umbridge is teaching us."

"There's not a lot we can do about it though." Hermione said. Personally she wasn't bothered by the lessons as she practiced in private and had a pretty strong grasp of most spells. "I mean you tried speaking to Dumbledore and that didn't work."

"Yeah, because he bloody ignored me." Harry muttered darkly. Just the previous week he'd tried to talk to Dumbledore about Umbridge but the Headmaster had carried on walking through the crowds of students as though he hadn't heard Harry, even though he was shouting at him.

"I just don't see what we can do." Hermione shrugged. "It's not as if we can get a private Professor to teach us."

"Yes, we can." Ron exclaimed, looking between Harry and Hermione. "You two can do it."

"What?" Harry gaped at his friend as though he was mad.

"What are you talking about, Ronald?" Hermione asked.

"You two can teach us." Ron said enthusiastically. "Harry's great at Defence Against the Dark Arts, plus he's had experience against You Know Who. And Hermione, you know everything, you can plan the lessons and teach people how to cast the spells correctly."

"That would never work." Harry said to Ron, before turning to Hermione. "Would it?" He asked, noticing she looked deep in thought.

"It might." Hermione replied. "It would have to be a secret, since Umbridge can't find out about it. But it could work, Harry can be the face of the lessons and I can do the background work."

"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the school pariah." Harry told his friends, not wanting them to get carried away with a plan that wouldn't work. "Who'd want to learn magic of a liar like me?"

"Not everyone thinks you're a liar, Harry." Ron replied. "Plenty of people believe you. I bet if we asked around we'd find plenty of people who wanted to learn magic from you."

"So it's settled then, we'll start looking into organising a study group." Hermione stated. "Once we've seen how many people are interested we can start by looking into places and times to meet."

"No-one will be interested." Harry snorted as Ron and Hermione started to make plans.

**[][][][][]**

As it turned out Harry was wrong and plenty of people were interested in learning defensive magic from him. At the meeting in The Hog's Head a large group showed up and almost all of them signed up to take part in the lessons once a suitable venue became available.

That venue was found a few days later by Neville Longbottom. The room on the seventh floor became known as the Room of Requirement as it gave the person or people entering the room whatever they desired it for. During the secret lessons the room provided plenty of space for people to practice spells, lots of books for study and a few aids for helping with the lessons.

Shortly after assembling Hermione handed out enchanted galleons that she would mark with the time and date of a meeting. The idea came from the locket she had from her father, and after writing to him he told her how to perform the spell. Along with the ways of communicating came a name for the group. After much deliberation they decided to call themselves Dumbledore's Army or the D.A for short.

Hermione though the name was very poetic as when Umbridge caught them, Dumbledore would be in trouble for creating a rebel group amongst the students. Hermione had no doubt that Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad would catch the D.A before the end of the year. Umbridge was already suspicious of Harry since his argumentative nature in class was fading and he just got on with his work without complaint. And if by any chance it looked as though Umbridge wasn't going to catch them Hermione wasn't opposed to leading her to Harry and the D.A.

While Hermione wasn't opposed to Umbridge finding out about the D.A she didn't want it to happen immediately so the weeks before Christmas break were spent being extra careful and vigilant. When the last meeting of the year was over Hermione headed back to Gryffindor Tower, pleased the term was nearly at an end. In the New Year she might start thinking about the best time for Umbridge to catch Harry, but she wanted to talk to her father first to find out what his plans for Harry were.

For the last few weeks Harry had claimed to be dreaming about this strange room with lots of doors and Hermione was guessing the dream had something to do with Voldemort. The last time Hermione had been home for a meeting she'd asked her father about Harry and he'd promised to tell her his whole plan over Christmas break. Hermione couldn't wait for the holidays as well as the plans for Harry her father had promised to fill her in on what was going on with the Azkaban breakout. Last time they'd spoken he'd claimed things were progressing nicely and they were aiming for the breakout to happen early in the New Year.


	9. Christmas Break

As soon as Hermione got home for Christmas break she headed straight for her father's study. A couple of days earlier there had been an incident with Arthur Weasley and all four of the Weasley children had gone home for Christmas early. Harry had stayed behind, but it was him who'd alerted people something was wrong with Arthur and since the incident Dumbledore had become worried by his connection to Voldemort.

Entering her father's study, Hermione froze as she spotted a long, dangerous looking snake curled up beside the fire. A snake had bitten Arthur and Hermione was betting that it was the snake in her father's study. What the snake was doing in her father's study, was a different matter entirely and Hermione was very wary of the venomous creature.

"She won't hurt you." Voldemort told his daughter, as he came up behind her. "Nagini's very gentle, unless I tell her otherwise."

"When did you get a snake?" Hermione asked, still hesitant to move closer to the creature.

"A few weeks ago." Voldemort replied, walking over to Nagini and running his hand over her scales. "She's a magical beast and we have a connection."

Hermione watched as her father hissed at the snake, causing her to slither over to a nearby basket and curl up. Hermione knew her father could speak Parseltongue, but it was a skill she'd yet to learn. Voldemort had promised to teach her and she was guessing the presence of a real snake would help.

"Now, how's school?" Voldemort asked, leading Hermione over to a nearby sofa where they settled down to catch up.

"Fine." Hermione shrugged. "We can talk about that later, right now we need to talk about Harry."

"What about him?" Voldemort questioned. "I thought things were going well. He's having the dreams about the Department of Mysteries."

"Yes, but now Dumbledore is aware of your connection." Hermione pointed out. "Harry dreamt about Nagini attacking Arthur, that's how they got to him so quick and were able to save his life."

"I wondered about that." Voldemort said. "Nagini's venom is very powerful, I expected Weasley to be dead long before anyone found him."

"Anyway, the point is that incident made Dumbledore suspicious." Hermione told her father. "He's sending Harry to have private lessons off Snape so he can learn to block you out of his head."

"Ah yes, the occulemency lessons." Voldemort chuckled. "I know all about them."

"How?" Hermione frowned.

"Severus has been to see me and told me all about the lessons." Voldemort explained. "According to Severus, Potter is far too curious about his dreams to want to get rid of them. Severus is confident the lessons will be a failure."

"And do your trust him?" Hermione questioned.

"I'm starting to believe Severus is loyal to us." Voldemort replied. "Although we'll hopefully know for sure in the New Year."

"How?"

"Because over the holidays, he's going to find out I've got a daughter." Voldemort answered. "If he runs to the Order and tells them, then his loyalties are with them and he'll be dealt with."

"Is it safe to tell him?" Hermione questioned, worried about her own safety.

"Don't worry, you'll be perfectly safe." Voldemort reassured his daughter. "Like the rest of the Death Eaters, he'll merely know I have a daughter. He'll not have a clue as to who you are or what you're called. The only people who know that are Lucius and Narcissa."

"Narcissa knows?" Hermione looked at her father in surprise. "Since when?"

"Shortly after you went back to school." Voldemort replied. "Both Lucius and Narcissa also knew who your mother is. It's just too impractical for Lucius not to know everything and as his wife I thought it only fair that Narcissa knows as well. I trust them both and I know they would never dream of betraying us."

"What about Draco?" Hermione asked. "Will you be telling him who I am?"

"Not just yet." Voldemort shook his head.

"Don't you trust him?"

"I do, actually. I just think with the pair of you at school together it could complicated. I don't want either of you changing the way you interact with each other, it would be so easy for one of you to reveal something with meaning to."

Hermione thought about her father's words and she could see the wisdom in keeping her identity a secret from Draco. As things stood Draco barely glanced her way unless he was insulting her and she didn't want that to change and cause suspicion. With the knowledge of who she truly was he might regulate his insults or even weaken them without realising what he was doing. Her father was right, for now it best that Draco was kept in the dark about her identity.

"Enough business talk." Voldemort suddenly announced as he stood up. "It's the holidays, we should be looking forward to spending time together as a family."

Hermione jumped up from her seat and together with her father they left his study. Finding Kathleen in the front room Hermione and Voldemort joined her and Hermione spent a few hours telling her parents about school. Hermione was still telling her parents about Umbridge and the group she'd helped Harry to form as they settled down for dinner.

Over dinner the conversation turned to their plans for Christmas and the New Year. Hermione was shocked when her parents mentioned spending New Year's Eve attending a party at Malfoy Manor and she was even more shocked when they said she would be accompanying them.

"How is that possible?" Hermione questioned. "I can't attend a party, I'm bound to be spotted by someone."

"Firstly the party is exclusive to my Death Eaters and their partners." Voldemort explained. "After what happened with Nott, I decided that I should allow my followers partners to know about you."

"That doesn't mean they won't recognise me." Hermione argued. "Some of your Death Eaters have children at Hogwarts. It's extremely likely that they've seen me on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, not to mention all the fuss there was over Harry last year in The Triwizard Tournament. I was in a load of the articles written by that horrid Rita Skeeter as she tried to cause a fuss over Harry."

"We know all that, dear." Kathleen said. "That's why Narcissa is throwing a masquerade ball. We are going to get you an enchanted mask that will hide most of your face and change your eye-colour as you wear it. I promise by the time Narcissa and I are finished with you, no-one will recognise you as Hermione Granger."

"This will be the perfect opportunity to mix with the Death Eaters and allow them to get to know you." Voldemort told his daughter.

"Excellent." Hermione smiled, suddenly looking forward to New Year. "Will Draco be there?" She asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Hermione's attempt at playing it cool didn't fool her parents and they shared an amused look. Hermione blushed as she realised she'd just revealed her crush on the blond Slytherin to her parents.

"Yes, he'll be there." Voldemort said with a smirk. "Chances are before long he'll be an official Death Eater, but I thought he deserved a reward for his display of loyalty earlier in the year."

Hermione nodded and hastily changed the subject, asking her mother more about the mask she was thinking of getting. Kathleen was more than happy to talk outfits with Hermione, and by the end of dinner Hermione was really looking forward to the masquerade ball. Not only would she get to see Draco in a setting where he wasn't going to insult her, she got to dress up and have fun, which was something she did precious little of posing as Harry Potter's muggleborn best friend.

**[][][][][]**

Draco was lying on his bed with his eyes closed, barely paying any attention to Pansy who was chattering on beside him. Both teenagers were in their underwear having spent most of the afternoon in bed together. Draco had finally decided the time was right to sleep with Pansy and in his humble opinion the experience had been one she would be bragging about to her friends.

"Draco, are you even listening to me?" Pansy huffed, elbowing the blond in his side.

"Don't do that." Draco hissed as he opened his eyes. "And yes, I was listening to you."

"What was I saying then?" Pansy asked, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest.

"You were talking about Christmas Day, and how drunk your Aunt got." Draco replied.

"That was five minutes ago." Pansy retorted. "I was actually talking about the masquerade ball your parents are hosting on New Year's Eve."

"What about it?" Draco questioned.

"Well, I was thinking that since I'm your girlfriend I should go with you." Pansy said, lying back down beside Draco and running her nails over his torso.

Draco grimaced at Pansy's use of the word girlfriend, he would definitely have to end things once she'd spread the word about his prowess in the bedroom. "Sorry Pans, I can't help you. I'm not allowed to bring a guest." He told her.

"But it's your house." Pansy pouted.

"I know, but it's actually The Dark Lord's party." Draco argued. "I'm being allowed to attend as a courtesy to my parents. If I didn't live here, there's no way I would be going to the party."

Draco knew that if Voldemort hadn't wanted him at the party then he wouldn't be going. Even living in the house that was hosting the party wouldn't have ensured him an invitation. Lucius had already told him that the invite was a gesture of appreciation for what he'd done with Nott. His father had also implied it meant Voldemort was seriously thinking about initiating him into the Death Eaters, meaning he needed to make a good impression.

"That's so unfair." Pansy complained. "We could have had such a good night together."

"I know, Pans. I wish you could come as well." Draco lied. Personally he was thrilled he wasn't allowed to bring anyone, the last thing he would have wanted was to spend the night with Pansy draping herself all over him.

"Can you at least tell me about the party?" Pansy asked, looking up at Draco.

"Sure, but I don't think there'll be much to tell." Draco shrugged. "It'll just be a bunch of adults hanging out and drinking."

"Yes, but The Dark Lord will be there." Pansy said excitedly. "You're the only person at school to have met him and now you're attending his party, that's a big thing Draco."

"I guess it is." Draco said with a smirk as he thought about the good this party would do to his reputation. Just meeting Voldemort had given him a boost, but attending his party would make things that much better for him.

Draco let Pansy ramble on about how great it was that he was interacting with Voldemort for several minutes. Eventually the sound of her voice began to grate on him so he shut her up by planting his lips over hers. When Pansy realised Draco intended for them to have sex again, she happily shut up and melted into his arms.

An hour later Pansy left the Manor and Draco breathed a huge sigh of relief. He now wouldn't see her again until school and practically straight away he intended to make it clear that he wasn't interested in a long term relationship. To be honest he wasn't even sure if he wanted to sleep with her again, all she did was lie there and expect him to do all the work. He knew he was Pansy's first lover but he'd still hoped for a bit more from her, however the important thing was she enjoyed herself and would undoubtedly tell her friends about him.

Shaking off thoughts of Pansy, Draco re-dressed and headed downstairs. The New Year's masquerade ball was in a few days and he'd promised his mother he'd help her sort the decorations for the ballroom and the back garden. For the last week several charms had been cast on the garden to keep it permanently warm and twinkling lights had been hung from almost every tree and bush in the spacious gardens. However the finishing touches were been put in place at the minute and Narcissa had insisted doing them herself, and roping Draco into things.

"Finally." Narcissa tutted at her son when he entered the ballroom. "Take this box and get into the garden."

Narcissa placed a large box in Draco's arms before turning to the house elves, which were bustling around the room, and barking orders at them. Not wanting his mother to yell at him Draco hurriedly headed into the garden where another set of elves were working. Finding out what needed to be doing, Draco got to work on the decorating. While it wasn't the most enjoyable of jobs he'd promised his mother he would help her and the last thing he wanted to do was disappoint Narcissa.


	10. Masquerade

Hermione stood in her bedroom, admiring her reflection in the floor length mirror. Even without her mask she was barely recognisable as the person everyone thought she was, and by the time the mask was added Hermione was confident even Harry and Ron would fail to recognise her if they saw her. Hermione was also quite happy that when she was all dressed up she looked more like a witch in her early twenties than a sixteen year old.

Hermione had spent most of the afternoon with her mother and Narcissa as they got her ready for the ball. First of all the two older witches had straightened Hermione's hair before enchanting it a darker shade of brown and adding subtle red streaks. Her hair had then been pinned up in an elaborate style, leaving a few tendrils hanging to frame her face. Narcissa had then sprinkled her hair with some sort of gems and it now looked as though she had thousands of blood red stones woven through her hair.

Hermione's make-up was then applied in a dark and dramatic style. Despite the fact she was going to be wearing a mask, her eyes were made up with dark make-up. Her lips were brushed with a deep red gloss and her mother cast a charm so the sheen didn't fade or rub off. Hermione's nails were then painted blood red and little black snake designs were carefully cast onto them.

With her hair and make-up sorted Narcissa and Kathleen left, leaving Hermione to slip into her long, blood red dress. Blood red was fast becoming her signature look and Hermione liked the fact it hinted at her Gryffindor side, but also embraced her dark side. Just before Christmas Hermione and her mother had gone shopping in Milan for the perfect dress and they had ordered her mask to match the dress from a shop in America.

Hermione's dress was floor length, with a dramatic slit up one side. The tight corset style top of the dress, hugged Hermione's figure and enhanced her already impressive cleavage. Hermione then added a pair of matching red heels and some jewellery. Hermione wore her ring that bore the dark mark, a pair of dark red drop earrings and a black choker with a red teardrop crystal that hung in the hollow of her throat.

Once she'd finished looking at her reflection, Hermione added her mask which stayed on her face with magic. Hermione's mask was the exact same shade of red and had delicate black lace patterns all over it. Once on the mask changed Hermione's eye colour every fifteen minutes, making it impossible to tell what her real eye colour was.

One final glance in the mirror confirmed she wouldn't be recognised by anyone she might know. Not only was Draco going to be at the ball but her father had informed her that Snape would also be present. Looking at herself Hermione knew that neither her Potions Professor nor the boy she fancied would associate her with the dowdy little muggleborn Hermione Granger.

"Hermione!" Voldemort's voice called up the stairs, jolting Hermione out of her thoughts. "Come on, we need to get going."

"I'm coming." Hermione called back as she picked up a small red bag that matched the rest of the outfit and checked she had everything.

Spritzing on an extra spray of her favourite perfume, Hermione dropped a small vial of it into her bag before exiting the room and making her way down to her parents. Both Voldemort and Kathleen were waiting at the bottom of the stairs and both of them told Hermione how lovely she was when she arrived at their side.

Voldemort was wearing a black set of robes, but wasn't wearing a mask. Hermione wasn't sure if he had a mask in one of his pockets or just wasn't wearing one, it was hard to tell with her father what he would be doing. Sometimes he liked to stand out and other times he liked to blend in with his followers.

Kathleen was wearing a deep emerald dress with an emerald and silver matching mask. The mask had come from the same place as Hermione's, only hers didn't have the colour changing charm for her eyes. Kathleen's long, brunette curls were pinned back from her face but hung down her back and her jewellery was all emeralds.

"Are we ready?" Voldemort asked his wife and daughter. "I've made sure everyone knows that you're existence is not to be mentioned to anyone not at the party tonight."

"What happens if someone doesn't obey?" Hermione questioned.

"They're gone." Voldemort replied coldly. "I've made it clear this is a final warning. Anyone who goes against us this time will get no mercy."

Hermione smiled at her father's ruthless words as the family made their way to the fireplace. They then flooed to the Manor, where Lucius and Narcissa were waiting to greet them. After the greetings had taken place they all headed for the ballroom, where the party was in full swing.

**[][][][][]**

Draco stood at the side of the ballroom, his eyes following the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. Ever since Voldemort had arrived at the party with his wife and daughter, Draco had been watching his daughter. The only other time he'd met her was when she was wearing a cloak and he hadn't seen anything of her other than her hand. Now however he could see so much more and he was entranced.

The mask she was wearing hid most of her face quite skilfully, but it didn't hide her inviting red lips and it definitely didn't hide her amazing figure. Every time she moved Draco kept getting tantalising flashes of her right leg and he'd noticed the way her dress had accented her cleavage very nicely.

Unfortunately Draco had yet to speak to Voldemort's daughter. Since entering the party she'd remained at her father's side as they mingled with the Death Eaters. A couple of times Draco had got close enough to hear her laugh, the light musical sound not quite what he expected to hear coming from the fierce witch he had no doubt she was. A few times he'd even overheard part of conversations she was having and again her softly spoke voice wasn't quite what he expected from The Dark Lord's daughter.

Draco suspected that underneath her tough exterior, she was quite a gentle person and for some reason he found himself wanting to see that side of her. He also wanted to witness the fire he was sure she had, which in his opinion would be very sexy.

A couple of hours after arriving Draco finally got his chance to talk with Voldemort's daughter. He was standing with his father when Voldemort and his daughter made their way over to them.

"Draco, it's nice to see you." Voldemort said, greeting the young wizard with a genuine smile.

"It's nice to see you too, My Lord." Draco replied. "And you as well, My Lady." He added, turning to the witch he'd been watching all evening.

"It's very nice to see you, Draco." Hermione purred, flashing the blond a wide smile. She'd been aware of him watching her all evening and she was keen to see if he would act on his obvious attraction to her.

"Would you care for a dance, My Lady?" Draco asked Hermione, before turning to Voldemort. "If that's alright with you, My Lord."

"I'm sure my daughter can make her own decisions." Voldemort chuckled. "But I do appreciate you checking with me."

Turning back to Hermione, Draco held out his hand and waited for an answer.

"I'd love to dance." Hermione declared, placing her hand in Draco's.

As the pair headed onto the dance floor Voldemort and Lucius shared a fatherly chuckle at their offspring, before disappearing into the crowds. On the dance floor Draco and Hermione had easily settled into the perfect hold and were traversing the floor with ease.

"You're a very good dancer." Draco commented.

"I have a very good partner." Hermione responded, chuckling when Draco visibly preened at the compliment.

For a while silence fell between the couple as they continued to move across the floor. Both Hermione and Draco felt completely at ease with each other and they both noticed how right it felt for Hermione to be in Draco's arms.

"You know, I don't even know your name." Draco said quietly, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Does it matter?" Hermione asked. She wanted to tell Draco who she was, but her father's words of caution from the beginning of Christmas break kept swimming around in her head.

"I don't know what to call you." Draco pointed out, stopping in his tracks and looking down at the witch in his arms.

Hermione looked up at Draco and smiled. "How about you just stick to calling me what you have been."

"My Lady?" Draco frowned. "You want me to just call you, My Lady?"

Hermione nodded. "For now." Reaching up she brushed her lips against Draco's cheek as she made her way towards his ear. "If you're a good boy, I might tell you my name at a later date." She whispered.

Draco shivered as her warm breath tickled his skin. When she pulled back she had a mischievous smile on her lips and Draco couldn't help but grin at her.

"I can be a good boy." He said, pulling her close and starting to move to the music again. "I can be very good."

"Hmm, I hope so." Hermione muttered, letting her head rest on Draco's shoulder.

As the couple continued to dance they were unaware of the attention they were receiving. Almost every person in the room had spotted how close they were getting and there were four people especially interested in what was happening. Over the other side of the room to Draco and Hermione, Voldemort and Lucius were standing with their wives as they watched their children. None of them objected to the potential blossoming romance, but they did all find it amusing that Draco seemed so taken with a witch he didn't know the identity of.

**[][][][][]**

After spending a couple of hours dancing with Draco, Hermione agreed to a walk in the Manor's gardens. Draco was the perfect host as he led her outside and showed her around the vast gardens. The gardens were all lit up for the party and Hermione though they were lovely. Her favourite part was a maze made from rose bushes and when you got to the centre there was a small lake and a bench to sit on. That was where Hermione and Draco currently were after Draco had shown Hermione the quickest way through the maze.

"You have the most beautiful gardens." Hermione commented, wondering if she should sit down on the bench. She didn't want to ruin her dress, but the thought of getting off her feet for a few minutes was appealing.

Draco seemed to sense Hermione's internal dilemma and before she could react he had whipped off his long cloak and draped it over the bench. His plain black mask had been discarded when they left the ballroom and the removal of his cloak left him in a grey shirt and black trousers.

"Thank you." Hermione smiled at the kind gesture and sat down.

"My mother will be pleased to know you like the gardens." Draco said as he sat down next to Hermione. "She spends a lot of time and effort in making them look good."

"It's certainly worth it." Hermione replied. "These are without doubt the nicest gardens I've ever set foot in."

"Are your gardens at home not nice?" Draco asked.

Hermione chuckled at his attempt to get her to open up. After the discussion on her name, she'd told him that personal questions were off the table. Instead they had talked about trivial things like books and magic, but every so often Draco would try and sneak a sly question in that would have her revealing personal information. Hermione hadn't gotten mad at the odd little questions he snuck into the conversation, instead she found it endearing that he wasn't too intimated by her to try and find out more about her.

"It was worth a try." Draco shrugged, guessing he wasn't going to get a response.

"Since you've been such good company, I'll answer this one for you." Hermione said. "Yes, the gardens at home are nice, but they're nothing like the splendour here. My mother isn't the biggest fan of gardening, so we've got a basic lawn with a few nice plants."

Draco smiled at the response, she may not have revealed anything about herself but at least she hadn't hexed him for his perseverance. He half wished he'd asked a different question, one that would have given him some more insight into the witch sitting beside him. Draco had spent the majority of the night with Voldemort's daughter and he still knew practically nothing about her. All he did know was that she was a great dancer, had a killer body and smelt absolutely gorgeous.

"I suppose we should be getting back." Hermione sighed after a while. "It'll be midnight soon, and we'll be expected to be back inside."

Draco nodded and stood up. Holding out his hand to Hermione, he pulled her to her feet. As she stood up Hermione found herself standing right in front of Draco and she couldn't resist running her thumb over his cheek. Draco responded by pulling her closer and before she realised what was happening he was lowering his lips to hers.

The kiss was nothing like the harsh, almost brutal way she'd imagined Draco would kiss. It was soft and gentle, with their lips moving perfectly together. Draco's arms had gently wrapped around her body as they kissed and Hermione felt safe and secure in his embrace.

All too soon Draco pulled back, a soft smile on his face. Hermione smiled back at the blond as she felt her stomach doing somersaults. Even though she'd imagined kissing Draco dozens of times, never did she imagine it would be so breath-taking and romantic.

"We really should be going." Draco whispered reluctantly.

Hermione nodded as she tried to compose herself. Once Draco had grabbed his cloak the couple silently made their way back to the party. As they arrived back at the Manor and went their separate ways, Hermione couldn't help but wonder how Draco would react when he found out who she really was.


	11. Matters of the Heart

Draco sat looking out of the window of The Hogwarts Express as the train ferried the students back up to school for the new term. Draco wasn't paying any attention to the chattering of his friends, his mind was elsewhere. Draco's thoughts were reminiscing over New Year's Eve, and most importantly the time he'd spent with Voldemort's daughter. It still bugged Draco that he didn't know her name but the Death Eaters had taken to calling her 'The Dark Lady' and Draco thought the name suited her well so now whenever he thought about her he referred to her as The Dark Lady.

The Dark Lady had been the main talking point on New Year's Eve and after his walk with her, he'd listened to a few conversations about her. From what Draco could pick up she'd done something in one of the meetings to prove she wasn't to be messed with and nearly everyone who he heard talking about her did it with respect. The main topic of conversation regarded her age as the Death Eaters tried to work out how old she was. Most of them agreed she was in her early twenties, but personally Draco disagreed with them.

At the beginning of the night Draco would have agreed with the others about her age, but after spending time with her he reckoned she was younger than people thought. The main reason he thought she was younger than her twenties was the fact she kissed him and as Voldemort's daughter she would know exactly how old he was. As much as Draco would have loved to say he'd kissed an older witch, he just couldn't imagine any witch in their twenties kissing a fifteen year old.

The kiss had haunted Draco's dreams and ever since it happened he'd been struggling to think of anything else. Draco wasn't normally the romantic type so he was slightly perturbed by the fact he couldn't stop thinking about the kiss and the feelings it produced inside him. One kiss from The Dark Lady had produced stronger feelings in him than actually sleeping with Pansy had.

As if Draco thinking about Pansy had conjured her up, the witch suddenly appeared in the doorway of the compartment. Greeting the rest of the group with a smile, Pansy sauntered over to Draco and sat down on his knee. She then proceeded to give him a kiss, which had the others in the compartment snickering.

The second Pansy's lips touched his Draco knew it would be the last time. He needed to end things with her right now. He knew he could end things in a second by pushing her off him and telling her to get lost, but he felt bad for the way he'd been treating Pansy and knew she deserved better than that. Since New Year Draco had been thinking about Pansy and he was starting to regret the way he'd used her to gain a reputation as a sex god. Pansy was first and foremost his friend and over the last few months he'd treated her appallingly.

"Guys, can you give us some privacy." Draco said to his friends as he gently moved Pansy off his knee and into the seat next to him.

Crabbe and Goyle jumped up immediately and vacated the compartment. Blaise and Theo took a while longer to leave and they made a few sordid cracks before also vacating the compartment.

"Oh, some alone time." Pansy grinned, snuggling closer to Draco as her hand fell to the lap of his trousers.

"Pans, we need to talk." Draco said, removing her hand from his crotch before she managed to get him worked up.

"What about?" Pansy asked, sitting back and looking at Draco warily.

"Us." Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to find the words to end things with Pansy without hurting her. "I'm sorry Pansy, but it's not going to work. To be honest I've been a complete git to you and you deserve better."

"I don't want better, I want you." Pansy whispered, trying to hold back the tears that threated to fall.

"Please Pansy, don't make this any harder." Draco said. He would rather she got angry than cry and get emotional. "I don't want to hurt you anymore, that's why I'm ending things now."

"Is there someone else?" Pansy asked.

"No." Draco lied. In truth there was most definitely someone else, one kiss from The Dark Lady had gotten Draco in a whirl and he knew that she was the one he wanted.

"I thought we were good together." Pansy said. "Was I bad in bed? Is that the problem?"

"No, Pans, you were great." Draco said. "I just don't want a serious relationship and I care about you too much to lead you on."

"I don't mind, I can do casual." Pansy answered, a desperate pleading note creeping into her voice.

"No, you deserve better than casual." Draco insisted, feeling even guiltier for leading Pansy on. "You deserve someone who really loves you and treats you like you deserve to be treated."

Pansy nodded reluctantly, she could see Draco wasn't going to change his mind and knew better than to argue with him once he'd made a firm decision. "Can we still be friends?" She asked hopefully.

Draco smiled widely and pulled Pansy into a friendly hug. "Of course we can. I'm just sorry I tried to change our friendship in the first place."

"Don't be." Pansy said, looking up at Draco and managing a smile herself. "I don't regret anything we did. I'm pleased you were my first, and I will never forget it."

Draco smiled at Pansy, before wrapping her back in his arms. He had a feeling that in time Pansy would still tell people about them and he would get the sex god reputation he'd wanted. Although now he couldn't care less about his reputation and how easy it would be to get girls into his bed. He only wanted one witch, now he just had to figure out how to get The Dark Lady to become his.

**[][][][][]**

While Draco was thinking about The Dark Lady, Hermione was sitting up the opposite end of the train thinking about Draco. Ever since New Year she'd struggled to get the blond out of her head. Mainly Hermione relived the few hours they spent together, especially the kiss, but sometimes she wondered if she should tell him the truth about her identity.

Hermione knew her father wasn't keen on letting Draco in on the secret just yet, but she knew if it was what she really wanted to do he would go along with it. However, she really didn't know if telling Draco the truth would be the wisest move. Even if they managed to keep people from finding out who she was, Hermione wasn't sure how they would handle their potential relationship. If everything went as she would hope, telling Draco the truth would lead to them developing a relationship and that would lead to them trying to sneak off together. Hermione shook her head at that last thought, knowing it was far too risky for the pair of them to be sneaking around the castle together.

"What are you shaking your head at?" Harry asked in amusement. He'd been watching Hermione for several minutes as her mind clearly worked through some kind of problem she was facing.

"I'm just thinking about Umbridge." Hermione replied smoothly, not even need to pause before the lie fell from her lips. "She was getting suspicious before Christmas, we'll have to make sure we stay vigilant."

"Don't worry, we will." Harry reassured Hermione. "After all, we need these lessons more than ever in light of what happened to Arthur."

"Speaking of which, how is he?" Hermione asked, turning to Ron.

"He's getting better." Ron replied with a small smile. "Mum's fussing over him all the time, as you can imagine."

Hermione nodded, feeling a wave of sympathy for Ron's father. Molly could be quite overbearing and the thought of her hovering around and fussing made Hermione shudder. Small doses of the Weasley matriarch were more than enough for Hermione.

"And what about your lessons with Snape?" Hermione asked Harry. "Are they still happening?"

"Unfortunately." Harry muttered. "I even had to have some over the holidays, but I don't think they're working. Snape says I'm useless and will never master occulemency."

"I'm sure you will, Harry, you just need time." Hermione smiled at Harry. "So was Snape about much over the holidays?" She asked innocently, hoping to find out if their Potions Professor had revealed she existed.

"Yeah." Ron grumbled. "We couldn't get rid of him."

"Maybe he had a lot of business with the Order." Hermione suggested.

"Nah, Sirius reckons he'd bloody useless." Harry said. "We were talking last night and Sirius says Snape hasn't given them one bit of decent information. Apparently there was some sort of party for the Death Eaters over Christmas, but even then Snape couldn't tell us anything useful."

"Maybe nothing happened at the party." Hermione replied. So far it was looking like her father was right and Snape could be trusted.

"Something had to have happened." Ron snorted. "But apparently he couldn't even give us the names of any more Death Eaters because they were wearing masks. I don't know why Dumbledore trust him, it's obvious he's supporting You Know Who."

Harry nodded in agreement and Hermione rolled her eyes as the duo set off on one of their rants about Snape. Her friends regularly had rants about people they didn't like, Snape and Draco been top of that list. Umbridge had also made the list and the rant about Snape soon progressed onto a rant about Umbridge.

By the time the train reached Hogsmeade station Hermione had once again tuned her friends out and was back to thinking about Draco. As she followed Harry and Ron to the carriages, she kept an eye out for the blond Slytherin but never saw him. Either he was one of the first off the train and was already heading up to school, or he was somewhere behind them.

When they reached the carriages and she saw Harry looking warily at the front of the coach again, Hermione approached her friend.

"They're called Thestrals."

"What?" Harry turned round to look at Hermione in shock. "You can see them?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. After you mentioned them at the start of term I looked them up." Actually she'd asked her father about them and he'd explained what the creatures were.

"If they're real, why can't everyone see them?" Harry questioned as the trio climbed into the coach.

"You can only see them if you've witnessed death first hand." Hermione answered.

"Cedric." Harry whispered quietly.

"But what about last year?" Ron asked. "We used the coaches to get back to the train and Harry never saw them then."

"The mind needs time to process what's it's experienced." Hermione told Ron. "Last year Cedric's death was still too fresh in Harry's mind for him to deal with. The summer had given it a chance to sink in, hence the reason he saw the Thestrals this year."

Ron nodded in understanding and turned his attention to Harry. "Are you alright, mate?"

"Yes." Harry nodded. "It just still hurts to think about Cedric and what happened."

"I'm sorry Harry, I never meant to upset you. I just thought you might like to know why you could see the Thestrals."

"I did, and I appreciate you telling me." Harry smiled at Hermione. "It's nice to know I'm not going mad."

"No-one ever thought you were going mad." Hermione chuckled.

As the journey progressed Harry's mood brightened and by the time the trio entered The Great Hall, he was laughing and joking with Ron. As they took their seats Hermione realised she had a prime view of the Slytherin table. Without it being noticeable she slid her eyes along the table, until she found the head of platinum blond hair she was seeking.

Throughout dinner Hermione kept one eye on Draco and she was thrilled to notice that Pansy wasn't slobbering all over him. Before Christmas she'd sat next to Draco at practically every meal and never passed up the opportunity to have her grubby little paws all over the blond boy. Now however Pansy was sitting on the opposite side of the table to Draco and was a fair few seats down from him. In their positions they couldn't even talk to each other without shouting over half the table.

Smirking at the fact Draco and Pansy's relationship seemed to be over, Hermione turned her attention back to her own table. Between the upcoming breakout from Azkaban and Draco being single again it looked as though it was going to be a good year.


	12. Gossip and News

Hermione's first week back at school passed smoothly and her positive outlook remained firmly in place. The first D.A meeting took place and Hermione decided to wait until after Easter before intervening with Umbridge, for now she would enjoy the extra practice and the opportunity to watch the people who she would one day be fighting against. And much to Hermione's delight Draco seemed to have permanently ended his relationship with Pansy, while she spotted them talking a few times there was no physical contact between them in any way.

On the Friday evening of her first week back, Hermione decided to forgo her usual study session in the library. Instead she went to the prefect's bathroom and had a long, relaxing soak in the massive bath. After her bath, Hermione had returned to Gryffindor Tower where she'd curled up on her bed to read.

An hour or so later Hermione had drawn the hangings on the bed so she failed to realise she wasn't alone in the room until the sound of giggling reached her ears. Hermione frowned at the giggling of her dorm mates, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Lavender and Parvati were always giggling and gossiping and to be honest Hermione wasn't fond of either girl.

Hermione tried to block the gossiping duo out, but she was still aware of Parvati asking Lavender about her holidays. For nearly ten minutes Lavender gave what must have been a blow by blow account of her holidays, until she mentioned spending New Year with her cousins.

"I thought you always spent New Year with your parents." Parvati said.

"They were attending some big, fancy party." Lavender replied. "It was all to do with dad's work, but I wasn't allowed to go."

Hermione grinned, knowing exactly what fancy party Lavender's parents had attended. Over the summer Hermione had been totally shocked to discover Lavender's father was a Death Eater. She'd shared a room with her for years and had no idea about her family's allegiance to her father, but as she discovered at the New Year party Lavender had no idea about her father's ties to the dark. Like quite a few of the Death Eaters, Mr Brown's mark was hidden with a concealment charm, meaning Lavender had likely never seen it.

As Lavender and Parvati continued to talk about their holidays, Hermione thought about what a stir it would create if the identity of some of her father's followers were to leak out. Another surprising member of the Death Eaters was the father of Lee Jordan, who was best friend to the twins Fred and George Weasley. Former Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood's father was also another surprise follower of The Dark Lord.

Tearing her thoughts away from her father's Death Eaters, Hermione turned her attention back to Lavender and Parvati. They were now talking about their favourite subject, boys, and Hermione started to tune them out. Just as she did she heard Lavender mention Pansy, so she started listening again.

"Have you really not heard?" Lavender questioned Parvati, disbelief evident in her voice. "It's major news."

"How can anything with Parkinson be major news?" Parvati snorted.

"She's claiming to have slept with Malfoy." Lavender declared with glee.

Hermione felt sick at Lavender's words, but it got worse when she continued and revealed that according to Pansy the event had happened over Christmas and had gone on throughout the holidays.

"Lucky girl." Parvati sighed dreamily. "Malfoy's hot. An absolute git, but hot."

"He's quite good in bed as well, according to Pansy." Lavender said. "She's claiming that he's amazing."

"How does she know?" Parvati asked. "She hasn't exactly got anyone to compare him to. He might just be okay."

"Do you really think someone like Malfoy would just be okay in bed?" Lavender scoffed. "I bet he's dynamite in the sack."

Parvati giggled and the two girls started talking about what they thought Draco was like naked. Not wanting to hear any more Hermione silenced her bed and lay back down, staring blankly at the canopy above her. She knew she had no claim on Draco, after all they'd only shared one kiss, but she couldn't help the feelings of jealousy and hurt that threated to overwhelm her.

Yes Hermione was jealous that he'd bedded Pansy, but she was more hurt by the fact it had been going on throughout the holidays. For all she knew he could have been with Pansy just after kissing her. Hermione had thought the kiss meant something to them both and she was hurt that Draco could potentially have just dismissed her like she was nothing important.

At the thought that the kiss might have meant nothing to Draco, Hermione tried to convince herself otherwise. Despite telling herself that Draco really had felt something for her and wasn't using her, there was a little voice in her head that said he was capable of doing just that. Hermione knew that the blond was ruthless enough to use her if he thought it would get him closer to her father. She also knew he was clever enough to realise the dangers if he was just using her, so she actually dismissed the idea of him using her to gain favour with her father.

By the time she fell into a fretful sleep an hour or so later, Hermione was still hurt and confused by Draco's actions. She just didn't understand why he kissed her while he was sleeping with Pansy. While his relationship with Pansy may have fizzled out, at the time of the kiss it was still going strong and Hermione hated the thought of being the other woman.

**[][][][][]**

Over the course of the next week Hermione's hurt had turned into full on anger. While she managed to avoid unleashing the full blast of her fury on people she still strode about the castle in a bad mood. Harry and Ron had even taken to judging her moods before even daring to say hello to her on a morning.

Exactly a week after finding out about Draco and Pansy, Hermione was sitting quietly eating her breakfast. Harry and Ron were sitting to her right talking about Quidditch, but they had both noticed that Hermione's mood was noticeably brighter that morning. After a week of being in a bad mood, Hermione had decided to forget all about Draco and concentrate on other matters. Sometime soon the breakout from Azkaban would happen and that was a good reason to be cheerful.

When the papers came Harry and Ron didn't even bother to look up as Hermione paid her owl and unattached the paper from its leg. After giving the bird a piece of her toast Hermione opened her paper and let out a loud gasp.

"What is it?" Harry asked, suddenly alert.

"There's been a breakout from Azkaban." Hermione replied. She was shocked her father hadn't told her the exact date of the break-out but she had to admit the surprise had made her reaction that bit more real.

"What?" Ron frowned, moving to sit on the other side of Hermione as Harry pressed closer into her right side. "That's impossible."

"See for yourself." Hermione said, laying the paper down on the table.

Together the trio stared down at the paper, the headline 'Mass Breakout from Azkaban' staring out at them. The main picture showed the cold, desolate prison that stood in the middle of the North Sea and there were several pictures of the escaped prisoners dotted around the article.

According to the article the breakout had happened the previous night and almost all the prisoners in Azkaban were freed. Several of them were high profile cases and the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, called them extremely dangerous to the wizarding world.

"This is awful." Ron said, his eyes scanning over the paper but not really taking in the details.

"How could this happen?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, but the Ministry doesn't have a clue." Hermione responded, pointing to a paragraph in the middle of the article. "Have you read this?"

"No, what does it say?" Ron asked, not wanting to read the small print.

"According to the Ministry they're working on the theory that the breakout had something to do with Sirius Black, the only person to ever break out of Azkaban before." Hermione read, paraphrasing the article for quickness. "Sirius's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, was amongst the escapees, giving the Ministry a solid connection to Sirius."

"As if Sirius would ever free her." Harry snorted.

"Who is she?" Hermione asked. She knew exactly who Bellatrix was, but she wanted to hear what Harry would say about her.

"A mad woman." Harry answered. "Sirius told me about her during the summer. She's actually Tonks' aunt, as well as Malfoy's. She's a big supporter of Voldemort, one of his most loyal followers apparently."

"What was she in Azkaban for?" Hermione asked. "Why didn't she avoid prison like a lot of Death Eaters?"

"She was sent to Azkaban for torturing Neville's parents." Ron whispered, not wanting to risk their friend overhearing them. "Her forte was the Cruciatius curse and she used is so much on Neville's parents they went mad. The poor things are in St. Mungo's, unlikely to ever get out."

Hermione felt a bubble of sympathy for Neville, but she squashed it be remembering his parents had opposed her father and were the enemy. As she did with Harry, Hermione felt sorry for Neville and his loss but she couldn't forget they were on opposite sides on the inevitable war that was growing more powerful every day.

"You know what I can't believe?" Harry suddenly asked, glaring down at the paper. "Even after this the Ministry still refuse to admit he's back."

"They'll not want to look like idiots." Hermione said. "Fudge made it very clear he doesn't believe you and Dumbledore, to go back on his word now and admit he was wrong will make him look stupid. Of course he will look even stupider when everyone discovers the truth and finds out he really is back."

"Do you really think that will happen?" Harry asked. "Do you think one day I'll be proven right?"

"Of course." Hermione nodded. "He's not going to remain underground forever. Sooner or later he's going to want to make a big splash and announce to the entire world that he's back."

"And when he does, you and Dumbledore will be proven right." Ron said to Harry. "Then you'll have a pile of people coming crawling to you and begging for your forgiveness."

As it turned out Ron was completely right about people coming begging for Harry's forgiveness. The only difference was they didn't have to wait until Voldemort announced his arrival on a more public scale. The breakout at Azkaban was enough to convince most people Harry had been right in the first place and he was overrun with people apologising and wanting to be part of Dumbledore's Army.

Hermione watched with amusement as all day Harry was inundated with people stopping him in the corridors and apologising. Like the good boy he was Harry accepted all the apologies and Hermione had to wonder if he harboured any lingering resentment towards those who hadn't believe him, she knew in his position she would be mad if she told the truth only to have people accuse her of lying. Hermione knew she wouldn't be able to just accept apologies the way Harry had, then again that was part of what made them so different and set them on different sides of the war. While Harry had a good, honourable, heroic streak in him, Hermione had a dark, vengeful, powerful streak in her.


	13. Bellatrix

A couple of days after hearing about the breakout from Azkaban, Hermione got a message from her father detailing the next meeting. Ever since reading about the breakout Hermione had been expecting the meeting to be scheduled and she was thrilled when it was. Obviously Hermione had never met any of the Death Eaters who'd been in Azkaban, but she was eager to see what they were like.

Hermione was especially keen to meet Bellatrix. A lot of the focus in the papers was on her and Hermione had heard numerous stories about the witch spreading around the school. Most people seemed to consider her the highest ranking female Death Eater and she'd even heard a few rumours about a potential romantic entanglement with her father. Hermione did not like the implications in the second batch of rumours and she also wasn't impressed that people considered Bellatrix the top female Death Eater. While technically not a Death Eater herself, Hermione was more important that Bellatrix and in all likelihood even her mother could claim to be higher up the ranks than Bellatrix.

Since the meeting fell on a Sunday evening, Hermione decided to leave early and hopefully speak to her mother before they left for the Manor. With Harry and Ron still worrying about the breakout and constantly talking about ways to help the Order, the pair barely responded when Hermione announced she was off to the library. Knowing she wouldn't be missed Hermione left Gryffindor Tower and headed for the same deserted classroom she liked to use as a base for coming and going.

When she arrived home Hermione was unsurprised to find her father's study empty. The meeting wasn't for another hour and she didn't normally come home so early for meetings so there was no reason why her father would be waiting for her. Leaving the empty study Hermione wandered off to find her mother. Kathleen was in the front room when Hermione found her.

"Hermione, you're early." Her mother greeted, jumping up and giving her daughter a hug. "I hope you're not taking unnecessary risks by coming so early."

"It's fine." Hermione reassured her mother. "No-one will miss me."

"As long as you're sure." Kathleen sighed, looking slightly worried.

"I am." Hermione stated confidently.

"So why are you so early?" Kathleen asked as the two witches settled on the sofa. She knew her daughter and she could tell there was something on her mind.

"I was hoping to talk to you." Hermione replied. "About Bellatrix."

"Why do you want to talk about her?" Kathleen asked. "You're not worried about meeting her, are you?"

"Of course not." Hermione snorted. While Bellatrix had a fierce reputation it didn't bother Hermione in the slightest and she certainly wasn't worried about the older witch.

"Then what do you want to talk about?" Kathleen questioned.

"I want to ask you about a few rumours I've heard." Hermione answered quietly. She didn't want to upset her mother, but she needed to know the truth about Bellatrix and her father. "About her and father."

"Let's guess, the rumours are saying her and your father have some sort of relationship going on." Kathleen chuckled bitterly, she'd heard all the rumours about her husband many times before.

Hermione nodded. "Are they true?" She whispered.

"Of course not." Kathleen said fiercely, turning Hermione so they were looking directly at each other. "It's all lies Hermione, you father and I are very happy together. He's not involved with Bellatrix in any way."

Hermione let out a relieved breath. She hadn't really thought her father would betray her mother, but she still had to be certain.

"How did the rumours start?" Hermione asked.

"Most likely from Bella herself." Kathleen snorted. "As you'll soon witness for yourself Bellatrix has a high opinion of herself and she has a thing for your father. Since she held a position of power she used to brag about being his top female Death Eater and she wasn't above implying she slept her way to the top."

"Why have you never challenged her for the top position?" Hermione asked her mother. "You're a high ranking Death Eater, I can't imagine father would place her above you."

"There's a reason I've never challenged Bella or pushed myself to the top of the pile. The same reason your father and I have never made it public knowledge we're married." Kathleen answered. "In the position I'm in, the other Death Eaters feel secure enough to talk to me or talk freely when I'm around. I hear a lot of stuff your father doesn't, even Lucius doesn't hear as much as everyone knows how close he is to your father."

Hermione nodded, seeing what a valuable role her mother played in proceedings. If you looked at what she did, you could easily say she was one of her father's most important Death Eaters. There was no doubt in Hermione's mind that her mother was far more valuable to the cause than Bellatrix would ever be.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Kathleen asked her daughter.

"Just one thing. Is Bellatrix really as mad as people say she is?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen her in years." Kathleen shrugged. "Before she went to Azkaban she was always a bit strange and I don't think years in isolation would have done her any favours."

"So chances are she's as mad as a hatter." Hermione said. "She's not going to like me is she?"

Kathleen chuckled as shook her head. "No sweetheart, she won't like you. She won't like the fact you're The Dark Lord's daughter, and she certainly won't like the fact you've taken her position at his side."

"Why was she so high up?" Hermione frowned at the mention that Bellatrix had once held the position she now occupied.

"She never had as much power as she liked to pretend to have, but she made waves in the wizarding world and was constantly reminding people the Death Eaters were a force to be reckoned with. Your father let her have her inflated opinion of her own importance, but everyone who mattered knew Lucius was your father's most trusted Death Eater and he had more power than Bellatrix could ever hope to have." Kathleen explained. "I'm not sure where she'll fit into things now, but I can guarantee you that she won't usurp either you or Lucius."

After speaking with her mother, Hermione felt more at ease about meeting Bellatrix. Now she knew most of the rumours were false she knew she had nothing to worry about with the older witch. Leaving her mother to get ready for the meeting Hermione headed back to her father's study.

By the time Voldemort appeared in his study Hermione had already slipped on her ring and made sure her nails were the usual dark, dramatic colour. She also had her cloak on and was just waiting for her father so they could go.

"I wasn't expecting you as early." Voldemort commented after greeting his daughter.

"I'm just eager to meet the newcomers." Hermione grinned. She was guessing her mother would mention their chat with her father, but she saw no reason to tell him she'd been at home for nearly an hour.

"Let's get going then." Voldemort said. "I have a few things to discuss with Lucius before the meeting so when we arrive you can head to the dining room and get settled."

Following her father's instructions, Hermione headed off to the dining room at Malfoy Manor after briefly greeting Lucius. When she arrived at the dining room the Death Eaters were just starting to pile into the room. Hermione was surprised by how many greeted her with a hello or even a respectful nod. Normally her presence was very much ignored at meetings unless she spoke, but it would seem the mingling at the masquerade ball had helped integrate her into her father's circle of follower's.

As she made her way to her seat Hermione spotted her mother watching her interactions with the Death Eaters with a small smile on her face. Even though she knew her mother couldn't see her face because of the cloak she was wearing, Hermione still gave her a smile as she passed by her. Hermione was still smiling as she settled into her seat, for the first time since she'd started attending meetings Hermione felt as though she was truly accepted by the Death Eaters.

Hermione's smile faltered a few seconds later when there was a commotion in the doorway. Just as Hermione was going to go and see if there was a problem she heard a mad cackle, followed by the sight of a black-haired witch sauntering into the room. Hermione instantly recognised the witch as Bellatrix Lestrange. While Bellatrix wasn't as dishevelled as her Azkaban pictures that had been splashed all over the papers, she still looked slightly messy. Hermione also thought she looked slightly unhinged, there was a dangerous glint in her eye and Hermione got the impression she could snap at any moment.

As the witch started to approach her, Hermione sat up straighter and waited for the inevitable confrontation. If she'd been anyone else she might have been intimidated by the witch but she was The Dark Lord's daughter and no-one scared her.

"Hello, Bellatrix." Hermione said when Bellatrix came to a standstill in front of her.

"I don't think we've been introduced." Bellatrix replied tightly. "But I'm Bellatrix Lestrange and you're sitting in my seat."

"I don't think so." Hermione replied coolly, very aware that the rest of the room was watching the confrontation with interest. "This is my seat."

"Listen hear you, that's my seat." Bellatrix hissed.

"Not anymore." Hermione said. "There's a seat at the bottom of the table, or you can stand."

"Stand?" Bellatrix spluttered, her face turning red with anger. "I don't stand."

"Well as I said, there's a seat at the far end of the table." Hermione repeated, gesturing to the empty seat that was as far away from her father as you could get.

"I don't know who you are, but you're messing with the wrong witch." Bellatrix started, but Hermione cut her off as she stood up.

"No, you're the one messing with the wrong witch." Hermione seethed. "You can either sit down, stand at the side or get the hell out of here."

"How dare you?" Bellatrix shouted. "You jumped up little tart."

"Bella, that's enough." Voldemort's angry voice reverberated around the room.

Bellatrix turned to find Voldemort and Lucius standing in the doorway of the dining room. As they started to walk towards the head of the table she shot a smug smirk at Hermione, clearly thinking The Dark Lord was going to side with her.

"What is going on?" Voldemort asked as he reached the two witches.

"I'm sorry My Lord, I was just putting this girl in her place." Bellatrix said.

"She is in her place." Voldemort responded. "And she told you where your place is. I suggest you follow her instructions and either sit, stand or leave."

"But…" Bellatrix looked between Voldemort and Hermione in confusion. "I don't understand, that's my seat."

"Not anymore." Voldemort shrugged. "This seat belongs to my daughter, The Dark Lady."

Hermione smiled at her father using the Death Eaters new moniker for her. However her smile grew a bit wider at the look of absolute shock and horror that was etched on Bellatrix's face.

"Make a decision, Bella. I haven't got all day." Voldemort snapped. "Are you staying or going?"

"I'm staying." Bellatrix muttered, before turning around and flouncing off to the bottom of the table.

As her father started the meeting Hermione watched Bellatrix shooting her dirty looks. She was fairly sure the only reason the witch hadn't left was because she knew her father didn't allow Death Eaters to walk away from him. If Bellatrix had chosen to leave she would have effectively been committing suicide as before long Voldemort would have ended her life for abandoning them.

The meeting was a relatively quick one, with the main objective being the newly released Death Eaters meeting Hermione and learning that she was every bit in charge as her father. Voldemort also expressed his wish for more Death Eaters and encouraged everyone to be on the lookout for new supporters. For the time being he was happy to remain low key in his activities but the time would come when he wanted to make his presence known and when that time came he wanted as many supporters as he could get.


	14. Gaining a stalker

Checking his watch, Draco decided it was time to pack up his homework and leave the library. Since it was nearly curfew he would have a stroll around school, in the hopes of catching Gryffindors breaking rules, before returning to the dungeons for the night. Before he left the library Draco had a look around, just in case he could spot anyone doing anything wrong. When he actually found the library empty, Draco slung his bag over his shoulder and strolled out of the library.

As he wandered around the deserted corridors Draco was disappointed not to find anyone out who shouldn't be. As a prefect and member of the Inquisitorial Squad his curfew was later than most students, meaning the majority of the castle should be in their common rooms. Unfortunately everyone seemed to be sticking to the curfew, so Draco decided to just head back down to the dungeons.

At least down in the dungeons he could enjoy speculating on The Dark Lord's next move with his friends. The recent breakout from Azkaban had created plenty to talk about and the whole house was waiting for news of Voldemort's next move. Even though Draco couldn't give his housemates any extra information regarding Voldemort's plans he was still the one to talk to considering he was the only person in Slytherin to have actually met The Dark Lord.

Also if he went back to the dungeons Draco was sure to get plenty of attention from the girls. As he'd predicted once Pansy had gotten over their break-up she was more than happy to spread rumours about his prowess in the bedroom. The result of her rumours were the girls in Slytherin, and sometimes other houses, constantly propositioning him. At first Draco had tried to resist, knowing he wanted The Dark Lady, but he soon gave in and revelled in the attention he was receiving. Draco still wanted The Dark Lady, but the more he thought about it the more he realised any sort of relationship would have to be initiated by her. He couldn't risk both her wrath and the wrath of Voldemort if he pursued her and she wasn't interested.

Draco had just turned back to head down to the dungeons when he spotted a figure sneaking out from behind a tapestry. Moving closer he recognised the figure as Hermione Granger.

"Hey Granger, what are you doing?" Draco demanded, stalking towards the brunette witch.

Hermione whirled round at the sound of Draco's voice. She hadn't expected anyone to be around and the last person she needed to get suspicious of her movements was Draco.

"What does that have to do with you?" She asked, acting as though she was doing nothing wrong.

"It's nearly curfew." Draco answered. "I'll have to be taking points off you for being out late."

"Curfew's not for another five minutes, I can be back in Gryffindor Tower by then." Hermione retorted. "There's no way you're going to get back to the dungeons in time." She pointed out with a smug smile.

"So." Draco shrugged. "There's no-one around to dock points from me. You don't have any power over me."

Hermione wanted to laugh as she thought about all the power she most definitely did have over him. Instead she just glared at Draco before turning on her heel and stalking off.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me." Draco seethed, chasing after Hermione and stopping her just before she rounded the corner. "You didn't answer my question."

"What question?" Hermione frowned.

"What are you doing?" Draco repeated menacingly.

"I've told you, it's none of your business." Hermione snarled. She knew most people would be intimidated by Draco, but he didn't scare her.

"Perhaps you want to tell Umbridge why you were sneaking around." Draco suggested with a smirk.

"I wasn't sneaking. I was taking a shortcut back to the Tower." Hermione lied.

"From where?"

"The library, not that it's any of your business." Hermione huffed.

"Liar." Draco taunted, his smirk growing wider by the minute. "I've just come from there, you weren't in the library."

"Maybe you missed me." Hermione shrugged.

Draco chuckled as he shook his head. "I didn't, you weren't there. You're lying Granger."

"And how are you so sure I wasn't in the library?" Hermione asked, tilting her head to the side and looking at Draco in curiosity. "Were you looking for me?"

"Why would I be looking for you?" Draco snorted.

"I don't know, but you seemed to be super aware of my presence, or lack of it." Hermione grinned. "Does someone have a crush, Malfoy?"

"On you? You have to be joking." Draco sneered. "I wouldn't touch a mudblood like you with someone else's body."

"If you say so." Hermione chuckled, giving Draco a cheeky wink.

When Draco curled his nose up even more and took a step back Hermione laughed again before turning and leaving as quickly as she could. She knew once Draco got a hold of himself he would focus in on the fact she was lying, not to mention curfew was two minutes ago and he would be able to dock points from her.

After Hermione had scarpered Draco stood in the corridor for nearly five minutes before regaining control of himself. Shuddering at the implication he would fancy a mudblood, Draco turned and stalked down to the dungeons. By the time he'd reached the common room Draco had replayed his run-in with Granger several times in his head and he was convinced she was up to something. There was no way she'd come from the library, meaning she was sneaking around for another reason.

Draco's thoughts immediately went to the secret lessons Potter was organising. Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad knew about them, but so far they hadn't managed to catch them in the act. Draco smirked as he realised Granger could be the key to Potter's downfall. If he kept an eye on her, she would eventually lead him to Potter and the glory of catching him would be all his.

**[][][][][]**

Hermione grumbled in annoyance as her eyes wandered over to where she was being watched. Since her run-in with Draco almost a month ago, the blond had constantly dogged her every step. He was forever following her and even when she tried to give him the slip, he seemed to find her again and resumed his stalking.

In one respect Hermione was quite impressed with the blond's tenacity and skill in following her. Even though he'd found out nothing he continued to follow her, and she just couldn't give the slippery git the slip. In another respect, it was becoming very annoying. She'd missed two Death Eater meetings because she couldn't give him the slip, and last week she'd missed a D.A. meeting.

Currently Hermione was sitting in the library, with Draco sitting a few tables away. Hermione had long since finished her homework but she knew if she left the library Draco would only follow her and she didn't really fancy heading back up to Gryffindor Tower and spending her Saturday afternoon listening to Harry and Ron talk about the upcoming Quidditch match.

Hermione was just debating whether or not to take a book and head down to the lake when she felt her necklace heat up. Assuming her father had sent her the time of the next meeting, Hermione used the pretext of searching through her bag as a way to check the locket without Draco seeing it. However instead of a time, the locket just said 'Now?' Hermione frowned at the message, not understanding the meaning. She would have to find a way to get away from Draco, even if it mean going into the girls bathroom and leaving from there. Hermione had considered doing that before, but in her opinion it was too risky. All Draco would have to do was go to Umbridge and tell her she'd been in the bathroom for ages and when she wasn't there when a search was carried out things could get awkward.

Luckily for Hermione before she had to resort to such a risky tactic a distraction dropped right into her lap, or rather it dropped into Draco's lap. Hermione had been so busy with her locket that she failed to notice a sixth year Slytherin approach Draco and perch herself on the desk before him. By the time Hermione noticed the girl she was flirting outrageously with Draco, and he looked to be responding. Pushing her jealous feelings to one side, Hermione watched the pair as she waited for Draco to be sufficiently distracted so she could leave.

After five minutes or so the girl slid off the table and straddled Draco's lap. When the pair began kissing passionately, Hermione quietly picked up her things and left the library. Once she was sure Draco wasn't following her she headed for a nearby supply cupboard and locked herself in. After her first run-in with Draco she'd decided to vary the place she left school so she wasn't always travelling the same route around school every time she was leaving.

Leaving her thoughts about Draco firmly behind her, Hermione headed home. When she arrived home she wasn't sure what she expected to find, but she wasn't expecting to find her father and mother standing in the middle of the room in an embrace.

"Ugh, I hope you didn't send for me so I could witness that." Hermione remarked.

"No." Voldemort chuckled as him and Kathleen separated. "In fact I wasn't even sure if you could come. You've missed both meetings this last month."

"Bloody Malfoy." Hermione grumbled. "The blond git's watching my every move. He thinks I'm going to lead him to Harry."

Voldemort and Kathleen shared a surprised look at their daughter's harsh tone of voice. They'd been under the impression some sort of romance was brewing between Hermione and Draco, but her tone suggested she was less than happy with him at the moment.

"Maybe you should lead him to Potter." Voldemort suggested. "You don't want to miss too many meetings."

"I know." Hermione nodded. "I was thinking of 'accidentally' slipping up and leading him to a meeting soon."

"You might as well." Voldemort replied. "My plans for Potter are coming along great. I think I should be ready to lure him to the Ministry just after Easter."

"Good." Hermione nodded. "So why did you send for me?" She asked, getting the conversation back to the reason she was here. "And what was with the cryptic message?"

"I was just hoping you could come home so I could teach you more about the Mark." Voldemort answered. "You need to learn how to control it, and how to give it to someone."

"Cool." Hermione grinned. "You want me to give people the mark?"

"Yes." Voldemort nodded. "I have an initiation ceremony planned for next week, I was hoping you would be there and I was hoping you would give our newest recruit his mark."

"I'd love to." Hermione said.

"Excellent." Voldemort smiled back at Hermione. "Put your ring on and let's head into the back garden."

Hermione was puzzled as to why she needed her ring, but she dutifully slipped it onto her finger before joining her father in the garden. Once they were in the garden, Hermione asked why she needed to wear her ring.

"It'll help you focus on the mark." Voldemort explained. "Once you've gained some more confidence you'll not need it, but for now the ring will act as a focus for your magic."

"Okay, so what do I do?" Hermione asked.

"First of all you're going to summon Lucius." Voldemort answered. "He's aware we might be calling on him, so don't worry about disturbing him."

"How do I summon him?" Hermione asked.

"First off close your eyes and clear your head." Voldemort instructed, moving so he was standing behind Hermione, his hands on her shoulders. "Now very clearly in your mind I want you to picture Lucius. When you have his image in your head, imagine him standing in front of you. Keep those images solid in your mind and imagine the dark mark burning."

Hermione gasped as she felt an explosion of power leave her body. Automatically opening her eyes she witnessed a wisp of black smoke appearing in the garden. When it cleared Lucius was standing in front of her.

"You called My Lady." Lucius smirked.

"I did it." Hermione laughed. "How?"

"You're a powerful witch, Hermione and you're connected to the mark through your blood." Voldemort explained. "Once you had the image of Lucius in your head, the imagery of the burning mark sent a message to Lucius."

"Did I hurt you?" Hermione asked Lucius, suddenly worried that she may have hurt him by the burning of his mark.

"Not at all." Lucius reassured the young witch. "In fact your summons is much gentler than your father's."

"You could tell the difference?" Hermione queried.

Lucius nodded. "Yes, I could tell the difference. The second my mark started burning I had an image of you in my head. I knew I was coming to you."

"Wow." Hermione whispered. "That's so impressive."

"That's not all the mark can do." Voldemort chuckled. "Come on, let's get going and we can practice a few more things. You are alright to stay and help aren't you, Lucius?" He checked with his right-hand man, not wanting to presume anything.

"I'm perfectly okay with helping Hermione." Lucius reassured the dark wizard.

Voldemort nodded and thanked Lucius, before turning back to his daughter. He then began teaching her all about the mark and all the different ways it could be of use to her. With her father's guidance and Lucius's willing assistance Hermione quickly mastered the basics of controlling and using the dark mark.


	15. Initiation

**A/N - Sorry for the lack of update on Friday, but I wasn't feeling well. Luckily I'm back to normal now and updates can continue. I hope people enjoy this chapter as we head towards the end of the first part. **

* * *

Hermione stood in a shadowy alcove, just opposite the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Hermione had been there nearly half an hour as she waited for the perfect person to either leave or approach the common room on their own. For what she had in mind she needed to catch someone who was completely on their own.

Eventually a blonde seventh year exited the common room on her own. Hermione had seen the girl around school, but she had no idea of her name. Not that it mattered for what she had in mind. Hermione waited until the girl was walking past the alcove she was hidden in before quietly whispering a spell that would freeze her in place. Once the girl was frozen, Hermione pulled her into the alcove and undid the spell.

"What the hell?" The girl looked around in bewilderment, trying to work out what had happened. Spotting a shadowy figure at the back of the alcove, she tried to see who had grabbed her. "Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter." Hermione replied as she raised her wand. "Imperio."

As Hermione's spell hit the seventh year got a glazed look on her face as she awaited instructions. Smirking that her first attempt at the Imperius curse had worked, Hermione stepped closer to the girl without steeping out of the shadows that hid her identity.

"Tonight you are to seduce Draco Malfoy." Hermione ordered the girl. "You make sure he remains down in the dungeons all night. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good." Hermione smiled. "Now continue on your way and complete your task for me tonight."

Hermione waited until the seventh year had disappeared before she snuck out from the alcove and hurried away from the dungeons. She wasn't at all happy about what she'd just had to do, but there was no way she was risking Draco stopping her from attending tonight's meeting. The meeting was the one her father had told her about the previous week, the one where she would be initiating someone into the Death Eaters.

Initially Hermione had thought that Draco wouldn't pose a problem to her leaving as after that night she managed to sneak away he seemed to lose interest in her. However a few days earlier she noticed he was back to following her again. Hermione could only guess the days he'd failed to follow her he'd been distracted by the Slytherin tart he'd been with in the library and once he was bored of her he was back to following her again.

Hermione knew she could easily find a way to get away from Draco, using a disillusionment charm or something, but she wanted to ensure the blond didn't lose interest in following her. Once Hermione had attended the upcoming Death Eater meeting she fully intended to lead Draco to Harry and the D.A. The meetings were starting to become bothersome as she tried to concentrate on studying for the upcoming exams and practicing her dark magic. With other things on her mind she didn't need the hassle of the D.A, meaning it was time to shut it down and in the process hopefully get Dumbledore fired. Draco following her had given her the perfect way to bring the D.A down, so the last thing she wanted was for him to lose interest, forcing her to get another plan. Hopefully this distraction would keep him away from her tonight, but he would still be following her in the coming days when she intended to activate her plan of getting Harry and his little group caught red-handed.

**[][][][][]**

Hermione was relieved when it appeared her plan to distract Draco had worked. After leaving Gryffindor Tower, on the pretence of going to the library to study, Hermione had made extra sure Draco wasn't about before heading to a deserted classroom. Satisfied the blond wasn't following her Hermione entered the classroom and as usual locked the door behind her.

She then headed home, where her father was waiting for her in his study. After greeting each other, Hermione went through her usual routine of doing her nails, slipping on her ring and pulling her blood red cloak on.

"Are you ready?" Voldemort asked.

"Nearly." Hermione said hesitantly. "I'm just not sure what I'm expected to do."

"It's simple, the new recruit will be brought in front of you and all you have to do is give him the mark." Voldemort explained. "You can remember my instructions on giving the mark, can't you?"

"Yes." Hermione nodded. "But do I need to say or do anything special? And what about the concealment charm some people have, do I give the new bloke one?"

"Firstly what you do and say is up to you, you're in charge tonight." Voldemort told his daughter. "And secondly the concealment charm is placed at our discretion. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this new wizard gets one or not."

"What happens if I can't give him the mark?" Hermione asked quietly. "I've never done it before, I might not be able to."

"You will be able to." Voldemort answered with confidence. "I have faith in you Hermione. Just remember what I taught you about the ability to control the mark is in your blood, our blood. You can do this, just focus and you'll be fine."

Hermione smiled at her father, feeling much better now she knew he had such faith in her. Voldemort smiled back at Hermione, before announcing it was time to leave for the Manor.

As usual Lucius was waiting to greet Voldemort and Hermione, and once Hermione had raised the hood on her cloak the trio made their way to the dining room. When they entered the dining room, the setup of the room reminded Hermione of the time she'd tortured Nott. The long table was missing and the Death Eaters were gathered around the room in a circle.

As normal some Death Eaters were wearing their masks and cloaks while other had forgone the mask. Hermione had once asked Voldemort about why some people wore masks and other didn't and her father had told her he preferred to leave it to the individual person to choose if they wore their mask at meetings. Apparently some people liked the anonymity the mask provided them with, whereas others weren't keen on the confining silver masks and chose not to wear them unless they were ordered to.

Upon arrival in the room Hermione stood where the head of the table would normally be, while her father and Lucius stood off to the side amongst some of the other Death Eaters. Once everyone was in place Voldemort nodded to the Death Eater nearest the door, who bowed his head respectfully before slipping out of the room. A second later he was back, being followed by a man in a black cloak that covered his face. The two men walked up to Hermione and the Death Eater bowed to her.

"Our newest recruit, My Lady." He said, before slinking back into the crowds.

Hermione looked at the new recruit, who was still standing a few metres away from her. "Step forward." She commanded. The man did so, stopping directly in front of Hermione. "Remove your hood."

When the man reached up and pulled back his hood Hermione's eyes widened and she had to work hard to stop a surprised gasp leaving her lips. Standing on front of her waiting to take the mark was Oliver Wood. Despite knowing Oliver's father was a Death Eater, Hermione had never expected to find her former housemate joining the dark. While Oliver was clearly a fair bit older than her, she still felt she knew enough about him to suggest he wouldn't be the sort of person to join her father.

"You are a surprise." Hermione said. "A former Gryffindor is a rare commodity amongst us."

Out of all the Death Eaters the amount of them that had been in Gryffindor were by far the fewest. Even the few Death Eaters that had children or relatives currently in Gryffindor, hadn't all been in Gryffindor themselves.

"I take it you understand what it means to be a Death Eater?" Hermione asked. She didn't want people joining them purely because of family ties, she wanted to ensure the Death Eaters were loyal to her father and willingly wanted to serve him.

"Yes, My Lady." Oliver replied. "I understand and look forward to joining your cause."

Hermione nodded, satisfied with his answer. "Hold out your left arm."

When Oliver held out his arm, Hermione took hold of it in her hand. While her left hand gripped Oliver's wrist, she placed her right palm over the spot she wanted the mark to appear. Closing her eyes, she focused on the mark and felt the power inside her gather in her hand. With a low hissing noise which sounded very much like Parseltongue, Hermione began tracing the pattern of the dark mark on Oliver's forearm. Slowly tendrils of dark magic flowed from Hermione's fingers and began etching themselves onto Oliver's skin.

Once the magic was flowing Hermione opened her eyes and watched the dark mark begin to form under her fingertips. From the way Oliver's breathing kept hitching and the wince that appeared on his face Hermione guessed the experience was painful. Still making sure she kept her focus on the mark, she sent a wave of pain relief into the skin she was holding. She knew her feeble attempt at making the process better wasn't much help, but she felt better for trying to alleviate the suffering of someone who was willingly joining their fight against the light.

After almost five minutes the mark was in place and Hermione released Oliver's hand. The small grateful smile he sent her way, indicated that he was aware of the pain relief she had given him and he was thankful for it.

"I'm assuming you want a concealment charm." Hermione said. Since Oliver was a professional Quidditch player she was guessing it was unwise for him to make his loyalties to Voldemort know.

"I would greatly appreciate it, My Lady." Oliver replied.

Hermione reached out to take hold of Oliver's arm again and quickly cast a concealing charm over the skin. Only her and her father could conceal the charm successfully as the mark was directly linked to them and them alone.

"While the mark may be hidden you will still feel it, and you'll still be bound by it." Hermione told Oliver, before looking up and making sure the rest of her words were directed to everyone. "I also want you to be aware that the concealment charm is a privilege we allow people to have, not a right. One wrong move and I can remove the charm in a blink of the eye, revealing your mark to the entire world."

Hermione knew several people had the concealment charm for various reasons. Some wanted their families not to know of their allegiance to The Dark Lord and some had high profile jobs, where the presence of a dark mark would be detrimental to both themselves and the dark. Despite the concealment charm often coming in handy for both the Death Eater it was used on and her and her father, Hermione wanted to be sure everyone was aware that it wasn't something they had to do. Her father chose to protect some people by concealing their mark and she wanted to ensure people weren't taking advantage of that and that they knew that they only had that protection as long as they stayed loyal to the dark.

Looking over to her father, Hermione smiled when he nodded reassuringly at her. It wasn't until after she spoke that she worried she might have crossed a line and her father might think she was trying to take over. Turning back to the assembled Death Eaters she thanked them for their time and dismissed them.

Once the room was empty she turned to her father and Lucius, who were still standing off to the side.

"Was I okay?" She checked as she pushed back her hood.

"You were brilliant, Princess." Voldemort beamed, giving Hermione a quick hug.

"Very formidable." Lucius added with a smile. "You hold the room's attention without effort and your no-nonsense approach is winning you lots of fans."

"Really?" Hermione's eyes widened at the news she had fans within the Death Eaters.

"Yes, on a whole the Death Eaters are very much in awe of The Dark Lady." Lucius replied. "As am I, by the way." He added with a cheeky wink.

Hermione laughed at Lucius and shook her head slightly. She was becoming increasingly fond of the older wizard as he helped her feel as though she was being accepted by the Death Eaters. He'd also made it clear that if she needed any advice and help he would be more than willing to spare her some of his time.

"Are you sure I didn't overstep the mark with my comments about the concealment charm?" Hermione asked her father.

"No, it was perfect." Voldemort reassured his daughter. "I also thought your touch with the mark was good. Lessening the pain made sure Wood knew you were thinking about him. I'm sure it will endear you to him."

"Do you think it's possible to make receiving the mark painless?" Hermione asked as the trio left the dining room and set off for Lucius's study.

"I guess so." Voldemort shrugged. "But it would take a lot of power and concentration. It takes a lot out of you to give the mark and add pain relief. To make it totally pain free you would have to really care about the person you were marking as it would undoubtedly leave you exhausted."

"How painful was it for mum to receive the mark?" Hermione asked.

"Well, your mother and I weren't together at the time so I'm afraid I gave her no special treatment." Voldemort answered. "I did add a pain relief to the mark, but I'm afraid it still would have stung a fair bit."

"Did it hurt getting your mark?" Hermione asked Lucius, just as they reached his study and entered the room.

"Yes." Lucius nodded. "But there's not one day that goes by that I regret it. Five minutes of pain is more than worth it to be fighting for something and someone you believe in."

"Well, we should be off." Voldemort said almost reluctantly. "Hermione needs to be getting back to school."

"Goodbye, Lucius." Hermione smiled at the blond man as he handed her the pot with the floo powder in.

"Goodbye, My Lady." Lucius responded, nodding at Hermione before turning to Voldemort. "My Lord."

"Goodnight Lucius. I'll see you tomorrow for our meeting." Voldemort responded, before sending Hermione home and following her through the emerald flames.


	16. The Downfall of Dumbledore's Army

Draco was determined that he was going to catch Potter and his little gang, hopefully sometime before the Easter break that was rapidly approaching. After his initial decision to follow Granger, he had to admit he hadn't been as conscientious as he should have been. Several times he'd gotten distracted by girls and hadn't even bothered to follow the mudblood. Although to be fair even when he was following her she never went anywhere but the library. Several times Draco had gotten the impression Granger had been intending to head somewhere other than the library, but she seemed to know he was following her and always ended up at the library.

For the last few days Draco had been following Granger using a disillusionment charm. Several times she'd frowned to herself as she looked around, obviously thinking she was being followed. While the suspicion might have been there, Draco was confident that she couldn't see him and would eventually shake off the feeling and proceed as normal, which would hopefully lead him to Potter and his secret meetings.

Luckily for Draco he got exactly what he wanted and the day came that Granger led him directly to her best friend. At first Draco had figured it was going to be a regular night in the library, but after spending half an hour doing a potions essay, Granger packed up her stuff and left the library. While Draco assumed she was heading back to Gryffindor Tower he still followed her just to be sure.

It quickly became clear she wasn't heading back to the Tower as almost immediately she set off in the opposite direction. Draco's good feeling about where Granger was going intensified when she ran into the Weasley girl on the fifth floor and the two of them set off together. Draco didn't dare risk getting close enough so he could hear them, so he was just hoping they were heading to one of Potter's secret meetings.

When the two girls headed for a deserted corridor he hadn't even noticed before, Draco felt confident he was going to find Potter's little gang. However he was extremely puzzled when they stopped in front of a blank wall and looked from side to side. After a quick conversation the Weasley girl stepped to one side and Granger began pacing in front of the wall. Draco's eyes almost popped out of his head when a door suddenly appeared in the wall and the girls quickly darted through it.

The second the door shut, it disappeared leaving a blank wall in its place. Frowning in confusion Draco walked over to where the door had appeared. Running his hand across the wall he found nothing, there was no sign of a secret door. Draco tried pacing up and down like Granger had done, but still no door appeared.

"Bugger." He swore after ten minutes of poking, prodding and pacing hadn't revealed the door.

Despite the fact he couldn't find the door, Draco knew what he'd seen. Somehow Potter and his group had discovered some sort of secret room and the entrance was hidden in some way. So even though Draco couldn't find the door, he knew Potter and friends were behind the wall.

Draco didn't want to leave the corridor unattended, but he knew he needed to get to Umbridge and tell her what he'd discovered. While he may not be able to gain entry into Potter's secret room, he knew the dumpy little witch in pink would find a way. Casting a couple of spells that his father had taught him to detect movement, Draco left the corridor. The spells he cast were linked to his wand and if anyone stepped foot in the corridor he'd just left, Draco's wand would vibrate.

Heading to Umbridge's office, Draco found the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor just sitting down to enjoy a cup of tea.

"Would you care for a cup, Draco?" Umbridge asked, allowing the Slytherin into her domain.

"No thank you, Professor." Draco said politely, trying not to wince at the garish pink room and the odd collection of cat plates on the walls. "I think I know where Potter and his group are meeting."

"Oh, do tell." Umbridge grinned.

"Well, I was using a disillusionment charm to follow Granger. She met up with the Weasley girl and they headed to this deserted corridor. Granger then made a door appear in a wall and they disappeared inside. Before I could get to the door it vanished and now I can't get it to reappear." Draco explained.

"Interesting." Umbridge said thoughtfully. "I've heard rumours that there's a secret room at Hogwarts that gives you exactly what you need. I haven't been able to find it however, or even confirm its existence."

"Chances are that's the room Potter's using." Draco said. "He probably found out about it from Dumbledore. Potter is his little favourite after all."

"Soon it won't matter." Umbridge shrugged. "Dumbledore will be gone before long and Potter won't have his protection. Finally the boy will have to face up to his actions."

Draco smirked at the thought of Potter and his friends not getting away with breaking all sorts of rules. Over the years they'd done all sorts and instead of punishing them, Dumbledore merely twisted the situation to suit him and rewarded them for their behaviour. It made Draco sick, but hopefully Dumbledore's reign was coming to an end and the Gryffindors cushy life would be over.

"I'll go ahead and check the corridor. I want you to run and get some more of the Inquisitorial Squad." Umbridge told Draco as she ushered him from her office. "Be quick, you don't want to miss all the fun."

Rushing off to the dungeons, Draco quickly grabbed his friends. As they ran back to the deserted corridor, Draco hastily explained what was going on. The thought of catching Potter and his gang spurred everyone on and they made it back to where Umbridge was waiting for them in record time.

"Where was the door, Draco?" Umbridge asked.

"Over here." Draco led Umbridge over to the blank bit of wall and showed her exactly where the door had appeared.

Umbridge poked and prodded for a few minutes before stepping back with a shrug. "Let's try some direct action." She smirked at the gathered Slytherins, before turning back to the wall and raising her wand. "Bombarda!"

The wall shook with the force of Umbridge's spell, but no door appeared. Not giving up, Umbridge continued to blast at the wall. As the bricks started to fall the Slytherins exchanged evil grins, before long they would be inside the secret room and would witness Potter's downfall.

**[][][][][]**

Inside the Room of Requirements, silence fell as the group heard and felt the rattling of the wall. A few more loud bangs had the room shaking and plaster falling from the wall where the door was located.

"What's going on?" Ron asked warily.

"I think we've been caught." Harry muttered.

"Is there another way out?" Ginny asked, looking around the room in a hurry.

"I don't think so." Hermione replied.

"Damn." Harry cursed as a small hole appeared in the wall.

Instinctively Dumbledore's Army gathered around Harry, with Hermione and Ron flanking him. As the group watched the wall the hole got bigger and Umbridge's smug face soon appeared, gloating over the fact she'd caught them. As the hole continued to grow and Umbridge could finally enter the room, the Inquisitorial Squad appeared behind her.

"Might have guessed they would be here." Ron muttered as he spotted the Slytherins.

"Yeah, smug gits." Harry retorted.

Even though Hermione had led Draco to the meeting, she couldn't help but agree with Harry. While all the Slytherins were wearing superior grins, Draco's was far worse. As much as Hermione fancied the blond, at the minute she just wanted to slap the smug smirk off his face.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Umbridge crowed. "It looks like a meeting between students I haven't authorised."

Walking further into the room, Umbridge looked around at the group before turning her attention to the props lying around the room. After looking at a few books, Umbridge tutted and turned to the far wall. Pinned on the wall was a list of member's that Hermione had made upon setting up the group.

"What have we here?" Umbridge asked, tearing the parchment from the wall. "Dumbledore's Army." She read the name of the group scrawled across the top, with glee. "Well fancy that."

"This had nothing to do with Dumbledore." Harry shouted. "This was all me."

"This says otherwise." Umbridge chuckled, waving the parchment in Harry's face. "It looks like your precious Dumbledore has been forming an underage army. Naughty, naughty."

"It wasn't him." Harry insisted. "We just used his name."

Umbridge chuckled, before turning to her Inquisitorial Squad. "Escort this group down to The Great Hall please. Apart from Potter and his two cohorts, they're coming with me."

As the Inquisitorial Squad took Dumbledore's Army down to the Great Hall, Umbridge took Harry, Hermione and Ron off to her office. Once in her office Umbridge seated the trio before sending a message through the floo network. Turning back to the three Gryffindors, she smiled triumphantly at them.

"In a few minutes a couple of colleagues will be coming to escort Dumbledore off the premises. After this evening's incident, it's clear he's not fit to be in charge of easily influenced teenagers." Umbridge announced. "As for you three, you will be in detention until the end of term. I expect you in my classroom every evening after dinner. Now go."

Hermione stood up to leave, and briefly wondered if Harry was going to cause trouble as he glared at the stout Professor. Luckily he just glared before following Hermione and Ron out of the office. In silence the trio trooped back up to Gryffindor Tower, each lost in their own thoughts regarding what had just occurred.

Once they arrived back in Gryffindor Tower they settled down beside the fire.

"This is all my fault." Harry whispered. "I've lost Dumbledore his job."

"It's not your fault, Harry." Hermione sighed. "Ron and I were just as involved in the creation of the D.A."

"Yeah, we're all to blame." Ron muttered sadly.

Ron's words hung in the air for several minutes, until the common room door opened and the Gryffindors from Dumbledore's Army trooped into the room. Wordlessly they all headed for where the trio was sitting and settled down with them.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"We sat in The Great Hall for a while, then Umbridge appeared and gave us all detention for the rest of the year." Ginny explained.

"What happened with you three?" Dean Thomas asked.

"The same." Hermione answered. "Plus she sent a message to the Ministry and they're removing Dumbledore as Headmaster."

"If I ever get my hands on whoever led her to us, I'll kill them." Harry muttered darkly.

"That would be Malfoy." George Weasley announced.

"Yeah, he was rather smug about being responsible for our downfall." George's twin, Fred, added. "Bloody ferret."

"How did he find us?" Ron frowned.

"Don't know." Fred shrugged. "He wasn't exactly forthcoming on the details. He just made sure we knew he was the one who led Umbridge to where we were."

Hermione was quite surprised that Draco had refrained from telling everyone how he'd found them. Then again knowing Draco she wouldn't be at all surprised if in a few days he'd have come up with some story that didn't involve him following her around like some sort of stalker.

"What do we do now?" Ron asked.

"What can we do?" Harry snorted. "Our foolish actions have led to Dumbledore losing his job. Dumbledore's Army is over."

Without waiting for a reply Harry stood up and stalked off to the boys dorms. After Harry's departure the rest of the group also drifted off, until Hermione was sitting alone. Staring into the dying flames of the fire she was grateful it was nearly Easter. Soon she would be able to spend two whole weeks at home, and then shortly after that her father would be luring Harry to the Ministry. Hermione still wasn't sure of the plan regarding the Ministry, but she was hoping her father would confide in her over the upcoming holidays.


	17. A Father and Daughter talk

The remaining couple of weeks of term passed without incident. After the fall of Dumbledore's Army and Dumbledore's departure as Headmaster, Umbridge was appointed Headmistress. The gossip that surrounded those events continued to buzz around the school, but action wise the time was pretty dull.

Hermione was rather surprised when Ron and Harry asked her to spend the Easter break with them at Grimmauld Place. Normally Harry and Ron didn't bother leaving for Easter, whereas Hermione made the most of every single opportunity to go home. Luckily she was able to easily refuse without offending the pair by claiming she had plans with her parents and needed to focus on her revision for their exams.

Upon arriving home for the holidays the first thing Hermione did was rush off to see her father. When he wasn't in his study and she couldn't find him anywhere she went looking for her mother. Kathleen was in the back garden, watching as several House Elves planted a row of rose bushes along the side of the lawn.

"Where's father?" Hermione questioned.

"He had a bit of business to discuss with Lucius." Kathleen replied. "Don't worry Sweetheart, he'll be back for dinner."

Hermione was slightly disappointed her father wasn't at home to greet her, but she shrugged it off and instead spent some time with her mother. As they watched the Elves work Kathleen explained the rose bushes were enchanted to always have flowers growing on them and had been recommended by Narcissa.

After spending a while in the garden, Kathleen and Hermione headed back inside. Shortly after they went indoors Voldemort arrived home and the family settled down to have dinner. Over dinner they talked about school and a few of the Death Eater plans, but Hermione got the distinct impression there was something her parents weren't telling her. Several times she'd caught them exchanging secretive looks and despite their outwardly happy faces there was an air or seriousness in the room.

"Let's go the front room." Voldemort suggested once dinner was over. "There's something we need to talk about, princess."

Hermione followed her parents into the front room and was rather surprised when they settled her on the sofa and sat down on either side of her. Their closeness to her was very unnerving and she was now seriously worried something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" She demanded, before either of her parents could speak.

"This is something we should have told you earlier, but I've been putting off." Voldemort sighed. "There's no easy way to say this Hermione, but the spell last summer didn't work properly."

"What do you mean, it didn't work?" Hermione frowned. "You're back to full strength and your magic is back."

"And both are fading fast." Voldemort replied. "I knew almost immediately that something wasn't right. By the time I arrived home that night, I could barely stand and my magic was so weak."

"What does this mean?" Hermione whispered. "Will you go back to how you were before?"

"We don't know." Kathleen answered, taking hold of her daughter's hand. "But it's a possibility. There's another possibility that we might also have to face."

"No." Hermione shook her head violently, refusing to let the other possibility enter her thoughts properly.

"Princess, you have to be ready for that." Voldemort said quietly. "I hope to hell it doesn't happen, but we have to be prepared. Once my magic fades completely, I might die."

"No." Hermione cried, a lone tear squeezing out of her eye and running down her cheek. "You can't."

"Everyone has to go eventually." Voldemort said sadly. "Hopefully my time hasn't arrived just yet. But if it has, I've had a good life and I've got everything I ever needed in you and your mother."

"What's going to happen?" Hermione asked quietly. "How much magic do you have left?"

"We can't say to be sure, but we think a few months." Voldemort replied.

"We?"

"Me, your mother and Lucius." Voldemort said. "We've been working on a plan since I returned."

"What sort of plan?" Hermione asked. "A plan to save you?"

Voldemort sighed at the hopeful tone in his daughter's voice as he slowly shook his head. "I don't think I can be saved, sweetheart. That spell I used last summer was a one-time deal, it won't work again and as far we know there's nothing else that can do the same thing."

"I don't understand. If the plan's not to save you, then what's it for?"

"It's to ensure the Death Eaters carry on with you as their leader." Voldemort answered.

Hermione gaped at her father as suddenly a lot of things fell into place. "That's what all this has been about. That's why you had me attend meetings at your side, even though I'm still so young. That's why you've been teaching me about the mark, and making sure I've asserted my authority over the Death Eaters."

"Yes." Voldemort nodded. "You were always going to take over, this just accelerated everything. Luckily you're bright enough and powerful enough that your age isn't an issue. You can handle this, Hermione."

"I can't." Hermione said softly. "I need you to help me."

"No, you don't." Voldemort insisted. "In a few months, you'll be in charge and you'll be fine. If you do need help, Lucius will be there for you. But I want you to take control and make the decisions, I know you're strong enough to do that."

"We both know you're strong enough." Kathleen added. "We've both watched you these last few months, you were born to lead the Death Eaters. You're a natural leader."

Hermione sat silently, trying to come to terms with what she was hearing. A lot of things made a lot more sense now and she understood why her father had been having lots of private meetings with Lucius and why he was so keen on getting her to show her authority to the Death Eaters. However she really didn't think she could lead them, she was just a school girl with very little experience of dark magic.

"We also need to talk about the other part of the plan." Voldemort said. He'd given Hermione a few minutes to start coming to terms with what he was saying, but they had more to discuss.

"What other part?" Hermione asked.

"The part where the whole world thinks I'm dead." Voldemort answered.

"Dead?" Hermione gasped. "But you said that was only a possibility."

"It is." Voldemort reassured his daughter. "But for what I have planned, we're going to need to fake my death."

"Why?"

"Firstly, while the Death Eaters would be happy to obey you if you took charge there might be problems if they knew I was around and in a weakened state. As long as they know I'm still alive, there's a chance they won't accept you as their leader."

"How does you being dead help?" Hermione snorted. "Surely that makes it even less likely they'll accept me."

"No." Voldemort shook his head. "In these last few months I've shown and told them that you are my successor. In the event of my death, they will follow you. They will become your army, not mine. If they think there is still a chance I might come back, it would lead to chaos."

"But you might be able to come back." Hermione said. "We can search for another cure."

"Even if we found one, I don't want to lead the Death Eaters anymore." Voldemort answered. "You're the future, Hermione, you're going to lead them to victory. Magic or no magic all I want to do is live out the remainder of my life, however long that may be, with the two witches I love."

"Are you sure?" Hermione sniffed, moved by her father's words.

"Yes." Voldemort nodded and smiled at his daughter. "I'm sure. My 'death' will pave the way for you to take over and I couldn't be happier about that."

"How are you going to achieve it?" Hermione asked.

"When I lure Potter to the Ministry, I'm going to let him kill me. Well, I'm going to let him think he's killed me."

"You're not interested in the prophecy, are you?" Hermione looked at her father, suddenly realising if he wasn't going to be around then there was no need for him to know the whole prophecy.

"No, the prophecy's just the bait to get Potter to the Ministry." Voldemort answered.

"How's this even going to work?" Hermione asked. "And why does everyone need to think you're dead? Why not just tell the Death Eaters you're dead?"

"Firstly, if everyone thinks I'm dead it'll give you time to settle in as leader of the Death Eaters. I suggest after my 'death' you lay low for a few months, let the Order and the Ministry think things have calmed down." Voldemort said. "And as for how my 'death' will be faked, Lucius and I have a plan. I'll have a protection spell on, meaning Potter's curses won't work on me. All I have to do is go down near to where Lucius will be hiding. He then casts a spell to transport me back home, leaving a pile of ashes in my place."

"Ashes?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "How does ashes prove you're dead?"

"When they die some wizards turn into ash. Sometimes it's old age, but a lot of the time it's due to them practising dark magic. No doubt Dumbledore will know all about this and immediately proclaim my use of dark magic has turned me to ashes upon my death."

"Okay, so what happens once you're 'dead'?" Hermione asked. "I'm hardly going to be in a position to rush back and call a meeting, I'll be stuck at school."

"That's all sorted." Voldemort answered smoothly. "Lucius will call a meeting and announce my death. He'll then claim that you're currently grieving, but will make a decision about the Death Eaters in a few weeks. Until you've finished school, Lucius can keep them in line."

"Then once I finish school, I take control." Hermione said.

"Yes."

"What about you?" Hermione turned to her mother. "Don't you want to take control?"

"No sweetheart, that's your job." Kathleen smiled. "I'll carry on as a Death Eater and will help you the way I helped your father. But I have no interest in gaining control of the Death Eaters, I'm happy as I am."

"There is another thing." Voldemort told his daughter. "I don't want you revealing your identity to the Death Eaters until you've left school for good. After these last few months I don't foresee any problems with you taking charge, but there might be problems if they know you're still at school."

Hermione nodded, immediately seeing the potential problems. A lot of the Death Eaters might have problems with her age, and if they knew she was still at school she could potentially see them taking advantage of the fact she wasn't able to leave freely. As long as they didn't know she was restricted in her movements, they would be wary of her showing up unexpectedly but if they knew she was stuck at school they would know she would struggle to get to them. Not to mention the fact that it could be dangerous for her if her identity was revealed while she was still at school. A lot of people would be unhappy with her true identity and she certainly wouldn't be welcome in Gryffindor Tower.

"Is there anything you want to ask me?" Voldemort asked his daughter. He was pretty sure he'd covered everything, but he wanted to be sure Hermione had all the answers she would need.

"I don't think so." Hermione said after giving the question some consideration. "But I do want a promise from you."

"Anything." Voldemort immediately said, before he realised she might want something he couldn't give her.

"I want to know you're safe every day." Hermione said. "Send me a message on my necklace, or if you get too weak send an owl. I need to know you're still alive."

"I promise." Voldemort said solemnly. "And I promise if things are looking bad, we'll get you home."

"I can have the Grangers have some sort of emergency." Kathleen said. "Don't worry Hermione, if the worst should happen we'll send for you."

"I don't want the worst to happen." Hermione whispered to her father. "I don't care if you go back to being weak and having no magic. I just want you to still be here."

"I'll try my best." Voldemort said, pulling his daughter into his arms. "Lucius and your mother are doing everything they can to help me and the three of us will do everything in our power to keep me alive."

Hermione was pleased to know everything that could be done was being done, but it didn't change the fact it might not be enough. The thought of losing her father permanently devastated Hermione and as she sat in her father's arms she broke down in tears. While Hermione cried her heart out Voldemort held her tight and when she calmed down they set about making plans for the rest of the holidays. While Voldemort didn't know how much time he had left he planned on making the most of every second and he was going to teach Hermione as much as they could manage.


	18. A Talk with Lucius

Hermione was still trying to adjust to her father's news a week into the Easter break. All week they had been practising and honing Hermione's magical skills. Today however her parents had gone out, leaving Hermione on her own. Hermione spent the morning practising her wandless magic, before having some lunch and heading up to her room to change.

All day the thought of visiting Lucius had been swimming around in her head and she'd decided to act on it. Lucius had told her more than once he would always be available for her to talk to and Hermione felt she needed to discuss what was happening with her father with someone other than her parents. She hoped that Lucius would be honest with her and not try to spare her feelings like she sometimes got the impression her parents were doing.

With the decision to visit Lucius made, Hermione spent a few minutes getting changed. She pulled her curly hair up into a high ponytail and carefully applied a bit of make-up. She then pulled on a pair of tight, black trousers and a deep purple top. As usual when she was at home her nails were painted a dark colour and she wore her ring with the dark mark. Pulling on a pair of low heeled ankle boots, Hermione grabbed her wand and headed down to her father's study.

Before leaving for the Manor, Hermione pulled her cloak from the cupboard and swung it over her shoulders. She wasn't particularly bothered about taking the cloak, but she knew Bellatrix was staying at the Manor and she didn't want to run into her without her cloak obscuring her identity.

It wasn't until Hermione stepped into the flames she considered the possibility that Lucius wouldn't be at the Manor. She knew he worked from home a lot, but she also knew he had plenty of dealings with the Ministry and actually had an office complex somewhere in wizarding London. Luckily when Hermione arrived in Lucius's study, the blond man was sitting at his desk.

Lucius looked up in shock, his eyes widening when he spotted Hermione exiting the fireplace. "My Lady. Is there anything wrong?"

"No, I just wanted to talk if that's okay." Hermione replied.

"Of course." Lucius nodded, suddenly realising why she wanted to talk. He'd spoken to Voldemort the previous day and he'd told him that Hermione knew what was happening to him. "Would you like to go for a walk in the gardens, My Lady? It's a lovely day, I'm sure a bit of fresh air will be better than staying indoors."

"Firstly, it's Hermione. I don't mind you calling me My Lady, but in private I would rather things were less formal." Hermione said. "And a walk sounds lovely, but I hardly think I'll feel the benefit of the sun with my cloak on."

"I can cast a few glamour charms on your appearance." Lucius suggested.

"I'm not sure." Hermione bit her lip nervously. "I don't like the thought of running into Bellatrix with only a few glamour charms to hide my appearance."

"Don't worry about her, she's off looking at a house with Rodolphus." Lucius replied. "Luckily the blasted woman is finally moving out."

"I take it you're not keen on your sister-in-law." Hermione chuckled.

"She's bloody awful." Lucius spat. "Even Narcissa's had enough of her. She's been practically intolerable since her return. All she does is complain about you, she's not a fan I'm afraid."

"The feeling's mutual." Hermione snorted. "I don't exactly like her either."

Lucius smiled at Hermione, more than happy to have found someone he could share his dislike of Bellatrix with. "So, glamour charms. Should I cast a few, and we can go outside. I promise Bellatrix won't see you."

"Yes." Hermione nodded. "But what about Draco? Is he around?"

"He is, but even if he does see you I'll doubt he'll recognise you." Lucius said, casting a few charms on Hermione. "Have a look." He said, stepping back and pointing to a mirror on the far wall.

Hermione walked over to the mirror and looked at her new appearance. Lucius had darkened her hair so it was jet black and her eyes were a beautiful shade of sapphire. The changed hair and eyes combined with the fact she was wearing make-up and figure hugging clothes gave Hermione confidence that even if she spotted Draco, he wouldn't recognise her as Hermione Granger.

Undoing her cloak, Hermione dropped it on a nearby chair and turned to Lucius. "Let's go outside."

Lucius smiled at Hermione, before opening the door and escorting her outside. As they walked they made small talk, which mainly consisted of Lucius complaining a bit more to Hermione about Bellatrix.

"Is she going to cause problems?" Hermione asked. "I mean, once I'm in charge."

"It's a possibility." Lucius admitted. "Very early on you're going to have to show her you're not to be messed with."

"What if I can't?" Hermione asked quietly. "What if I'm not strong enough to take over, yet?"

"You are." Lucius reassured the young witch. "Your father has great faith in you, as do I. I know it wasn't supposed to happen this fast, but you were always going to take charge of the Death Eaters."

"Was I really?" Hermione asked. Her father had told her as much, but she still wondered if he was only saying that because he had no choice in stepping down.

"Yes." Lucius nodded. "When he told me what was happening, he told me about his original plans. He was hoping to spend your last three years of school slowly bringing you into the action, and handing control over sometime after you'd left school. He was still going to be around, but the Death Eaters would be yours."

"But father said the Death Eaters would never follow me if he was still around." Hermione pointed out.

"It's true, they wouldn't follow you as it stands now. But in your father's original plan you were going to have been around for years, building up trust and support within his followers. A hand over of power would have been a natural thing, and even though he still would have been around your place as leader would have been accepted with ease."

Hermione nodded at Lucius's explanation. She wished that was the plan her father had been able to follow. While part of her was actually looking forward to the challenge of leading the Death Eaters there was still a huge part of her that was unconvinced she could handle the pressure. She was still so young and it would be a hard task to control her father's followers while keeping her identity a secret and dealing with school.

"How are you coping with the news?" Lucius asked, after a few minutes of silence passed as they strolled around the large garden of the Manor.

"I'm not really sure." Hermione sighed. "It's all come as a bit of a shock to be honest."

"I'm sure it has." Lucius said sympathetically.

"Do you think he'll survive the loss of his magic?" Hermione asked.

"With any luck." Lucius replied. "I know your father wants you to be prepared for the worst case scenario, but I have faith that won't happen. We've found a lot of helpful spells and while none will fix the problems with his magic, they should keep him alive."

"You sound more optimistic than father." Hermione sighed.

"Your father's just been cautious. He doesn't want you to get your hopes up and be crushed if the worst should happen." Lucius explained.

"I want to be optimistic." Hermione declared. "I don't want to believe the worst, I want to have faith he'll live."

"And that's a great attitude to have." Lucius said. "Just as long as you're not burying your head in the sand and can deal with the worst if it should happen."

"I know it's a possibility and I can deal if it happens. I'm just choosing to believe he'll be alright." Hermione said.

"You keep doing that." Lucius smiled. "Yes his magic will be gone, but the spells and potions we've got on standby should ensure he's physically okay. Well, as okay as a man his age without magic can be."

"So what you're saying is, he's basically going to be an old man." Hermione said. She knew her father was old, but with magic he was still wasn't anywhere near as old as he could get.

"Basically." Lucius nodded. "Without magic he's not going to live to be in his hundreds, but he should still have a few years in him."

"I hope so." Hermione sighed. "I want him to see what I make of the Death Eaters before he goes. I want to make him proud."

"You already make him proud." Lucius said. "Everything you've done has made him so proud."

Hermione smiled at Lucius as the two continued to walk towards the bottom of the garden, where there was a gazebo standing next to a stream. As they walked they talked about the Death Eaters and what would happen once Hermione was in charge. Lucius constantly reassured her he would support her and once she took charge she could depend on him in anyway.

"Draco's keen on joining the Death Eaters you know." Lucius said conversationally.

"Have you spoke to father about it?" Hermione asked. "I know he likes Draco and is keen to have him onside."

"That's what he told me, but he also made it clear that any new initiations are up to you. Now you're getting ready to take charge, he wants you to be sure of who gets the mark."

"I can tell you now, I would willingly let Draco join." Hermione told the wizard she was walking with. "But I want to wait until I take over before making any firm decisions. We can talk about it again in the summer."

"Take as long as you want." Lucius said. "I know Draco is eager to join, but waiting won't hurt him."

"Will he still be as keen once he knows it's me in charge not my father?" Hermione asked.

"If anything it might be more of an incentive." Lucius chuckled.

"What does that mean?" Hermione stopped and turned to look at Lucius, who also stopped.

"It means, he has a crush on you." Lucius answered. "You should have seen how disappointed he was when he returned home for the holidays and I mentioned there was no meetings scheduled this fortnight. He was gutted he wouldn't get a chance to see you again."

"I'm sure he wouldn't be so keen if he knew who I really was." Hermione muttered. "He hates me."

"No, he doesn't." Lucius insisted. "He hates muggleborns, and at school you pretend to be a muggleborn. I'd dare like to bet that Draco could tell you barely anything about Hermione Granger, he probably couldn't even tell you if she was attractive. All Draco sees when he looks at you at school is a mudblood, he doesn't see The Dark Lady who's hiding underneath."

"Maybe." Hermione shrugged. "Or maybe he just hates me. Just after Christmas we had a run-in and I accused him of fancying me, just to get him off my back, and he looked so disgusted at the thought."

"Again, he would have been disgusted at the thought of fancying a mudblood." Lucius replied. "He most certainly wasn't disgusted at New Year, was he? If I remember rightly he was rather smitten with a witch whose name or identity he didn't know. He liked you because of you, not because of what you looked like."

"Do you think I should tell him who I am?" Hermione asked.

"That's your decision. But if I were you, I'd have a bit of fun with him first. Maybe make him see if he can guess who you are." Lucius suggested with a wicked smirk. "I have to admit it might be fun watching him moon after a girl he doesn't know the identity of."

"You're evil, Lucius." Hermione laughed as the pair continued their walk.


	19. Flirtations

It was a week into Easter break and Draco was regretting his decision to come home for the holidays. Normally he stayed at Hogwarts over Easter with his friends, but he'd come home in the hope of seeing The Dark Lady again. Despite his liaisons with a couple of girls in school, Voldemort's daughter was a constant presence in Draco's mind. Unfortunately Lucius had informed Draco that no meetings were due to be held over the holidays, meaning he wasn't likely to see the witch he had such a crush on.

Feeling bored and restless, Draco decided to head outside for a bit of fresh air. Normally he would go flying, but his broom was at school and his older brooms were either broken or not fast enough for Draco's liking. Heading downstairs, Draco was passing the front room when his mother called for him. Poking his head around the door, he found Narcissa untying a letter from an owl.

"Draco, go and tell your father he's got an owl from the Ministry and it's marked urgent." Narcissa said to her son. "He's in the garden."

"Why is he in the garden?" Draco asked. He thought his father was working in his study and wasn't wanting to be disturbed.

"He's got a visitor." Narcissa replied. "I'm sure she won't mind you interrupting them though." She added with a smirk.

Puzzled as to who could be visiting his father, Draco headed into the garden. It took him a while to spot Lucius and his guest in the vast gardens, but he eventually located them near the gazebo at the bottom of the garden. As he approached them Draco struggled to place the young woman with his father. From behind all he could make out was her jet black hair and he could see she had a good figure. When he got close enough to hear a laugh erupt from the witch, he immediately knew who his father's visitor was. It was The Dark Lady.

Draco took a second to compose himself, before clearing his throat and making his presence known. Both Lucius and The Dark Lady spun around to face him and Draco found himself staring into the face of the witch who'd haunted his dreams since New Year. While her hair was a different colour and was now curly, and her eyes a shimmering shade of blue, it was undoubtedly the same woman. Her lips still looked as tempting as ever and her figure was every bit as impressive as he'd remembered.

"Draco." Lucius snapped his fingers at his son, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry." Draco hastily shook his head and regained his composure. "You've got an owl from the Ministry. Mothers says it's urgent."

Lucius nodded and turned to The Dark Lady. "I'll have to go and see what it is."

"Of course." Hermione nodded. "You go, I'll be fine with Draco."

"I'm sure you will." Lucius chuckled. "I'll see you in a while."

After whispering something to The Dark Lady that Draco couldn't hear Lucius headed back towards the Manor. Whatever his father had said to Voldemort's daughter had clearly amused her as she was watching Draco with a smile.

"My Lady." Draco smiled. "I didn't expect to see you."

"So your father was telling me. According to him, you were very put out to hear I wouldn't be around." Hermione said, giggling as a slight blush graced Draco's face. "Is that not true?"

"It's true." Draco admitted. "I was hoping to see you again."

Hermione couldn't help the wide smile that graced her face at Draco's admission. "And why would you want to see me again?" She teased.

"Because I enjoyed the time we spent together." Draco replied honestly.

"I enjoyed it as well." Hermione said. "Maybe Lucius was right, after all."

"What did he say?" Draco asked warily.

"He said you have a crush on me."

Draco flushed again as he heard what his father had told The Dark Lady. "Bloody man, I'm going to kill him." He muttered in embarrassment.

"Was that not true?" Hermione asked with a pout. "That's a shame."

"Why's it a shame?" Draco questioned.

"Because I rather liked the idea of you fancying me." Hermione admitted.

"Really?" Draco smirked, suddenly looking so much more like his normal confident self. "You know, I never said father was lying. He was completely right, I do fancy you."

"Good." Hermione smiled.

"Is that all I get?" Draco quirked an eyebrow at Hermione.

"What were you expecting, some sort of admission that I fancy you?" Hermione chuckled. "You'll have to earn something like that."

"How would I earn that?" Draco asked.

"I don't know." Hermione shrugged a shoulder. "You'll have to use your imagination."

"How about we go for a walk." Draco suggested. "I can show you the maze in the daylight."

Hermione nodded and the couple began heading towards the small maze across the other side of the garden. They walked in comfortable silence as they crossed the lawn and entered the maze.

"I prefer your hair how you had it last time." Draco said suddenly as they entered the maze. "Black doesn't quite suit you."

"How do you know this isn't how my hair normally is?" Hermione asked.

"It's not." Draco shook his head. "It just doesn't feel right. I'm guessing you've got some sort of glamour on it, like you have with your eyes."

"How do you know my eyes aren't real?" Hermione questioned as the pair came to a stop.

"Just a hunch. Last time you were wearing a mask that changed them every fifteen minutes and now they're lovely, but like your hair they don't quite feel right." Draco answered. "I suspect your hair at New Year was more like your real hair."

"And what about my eyes?"

"I haven't decided yet." Draco replied. "But I'm sure one day I'll see the real you and find out."

"You're confident." Hermione chuckled, as they started to walk again. "What if I never show you the real me?"

"Then I'll have to get used to you looking different all the time." Draco shrugged. "But I am hoping one day you'll trust me enough to show me the real you."

"I'm sure one day you'll see the real me." Hermione said as they found the centre of the maze and she walked over to the bench and sat down. "I just hope I don't disappoint you."

"Why would you disappoint me?" Draco asked, joining Hermione on the bench. "You're gorgeous."

"You don't know me." Hermione laughed. "I'm not gorgeous."

"You are." Draco said. "True you might be hiding your real face, but not all of you is under the charm. Is it?"

"No." Hermione answered. "Just my hair and eyes."

"Interesting." Draco mused. "That means the rest of you is real. Those beautiful lips are all yours, not to mention your stunning figure."

"Is this you trying to get an admission from me?" Hermione teased with a smile.

"Maybe." Draco grinned. "Is it working?"

"Maybe." Hermione chuckled. "But I still need more persuasion to admit anything."

"Let's see if I can do anything to help with that."

Draco quickly closed the small gap between them and pressed his lips against Hermione's. At first Hermione thought the kiss was going to be a repeat of the sweet, chaste kiss they'd shared at New Year, but Draco soon banished those thoughts as his tongue swept over her lower lip, seeking entry to her mouth. Hermione opened up to allow Draco entry and his tongue set about exploring her mouth.

As they kissed Hermione's arm snaked around Draco's neck, her fingers tangling in the soft strands of his blond hair. Meanwhile Draco's hand cupped Hermione's cheek as he stroked her smooth skin. Reluctantly the couple parted and stared at each with lustful eyes. The lingering look lasted a minute or so before simultaneously the couple leant forward and reconnected their lips.

The second their lips touched the kiss was hot and passion filled. Hermione slid across the bench, closing the gap between them and pressing her body up against Draco's. As they were kissing, Draco's hand trailed down Hermione's body and she let out a quiet whimper when his hand brushed against her breast.

After a few minutes the couple once again parted in need of air. They did however stay incredibly close, with Draco pressing soft kisses to Hermione's cheek and jaw.

"You smell divine." He muttered.

"It's my perfume." Hermione answered. "It's uniquely made for me. My father had it specially made in Paris."

"So you're the only person with the scent?" Draco asked.

"Yes." Hermione nodded. She wasn't worried about Draco knowing about her perfume and recognising her from it as at school she either wore none or wore a subtler more flowery fragrance.

"It suits you." Draco said, raising his head and looking at Hermione.

"Thanks." Hermione smiled.

"So did I earn an admission yet?" Draco asked.

"I think you already know the answer." Hermione chuckled. "I don't go around kissing just anyone."

"I'm pleased to hear that." Draco smirked. "But I still wouldn't mind hearing you tell me that you fancy me."

"Why? So I can stroke you ego a bit more?" Hermione questioned. "You don't need me to help with that."

"Maybe not, but I would like to hear what you really think about me." Draco replied sincerely.

"I really like you." Hermione told Draco. Despite his normal confidence in himself she could sense that he wasn't quite as sure of himself with her for some reason. "You're very good looking, which I'm sure you already know. And I happen to think you're very sexy and I fancy you like mad."

Draco grinned widely at Hermione's admission and briefly reconnected their lips. "The feeling is entirely mutual." He whispered to her.

"Good." Hermione replied, wondering if he would feel the same way once he knew who she really was.

"So what happens now?" Draco asked. "About us, I mean."

"I'm not sure." Hermione admitted. "First of all we need to get the rest of the year over with. I'm sure we'll see each other over the summer."

"I'm sure we will." Draco said. "Did father tell you I want to join the Death Eaters?"

"Yes, he mentioned it." Hermione nodded. "I hope you're not sucking up to me so I'll put in a good word for you with father."

"Of course not." Draco tutted. "I don't need anyone to help me impress The Dark Lord. My actions speak for themselves."

"What actions are these?" Hermione asked.

"Do you not know about the part I played in getting Dumbledore sacked?" Draco questioned. "I helped bring down Potter and his gang, which lead to Dumbledore's sacking."

"That sounds impressive. Why don't you tell me about it?" Hermione suggested, eager to hear if Draco would tell her the truth.

Surprisingly Draco told Hermione exactly what had happened and had admitted following her for weeks in order to find out where Harry was meeting. Hermione did consider asking about herself to hear what he had to say about her, but remembering Lucius's advice she decided against it.

"I suppose I best get back." Hermione said once Draco had finished his story and she had flattered him a bit by praising his efforts.

"I guess." Draco sighed reluctantly.

Slowly the couple stood up and started to exit the maze. Once they were out of the maze they walked across the lawn and Draco accompanied Hermione to his father's study.

"Draco, before I go I want you to know something." Hermione said as they came to a halt outside the closed door. "I don't want you to think I'm not revealing my identity because I don't trust you, because I do. At the minute it's just too risky, but I promise I will tell you soon."

"There's no rush." Draco replied. "I'm happy just to spend time with you, whatever you look like."

Hermione smiled at Draco before leaning up and brushing her lips briefly against his. "I'll see you in the summer."

Draco nodded and watched as The Dark Lady slipped into his father's study. He heard the low sound of his father's voice through the door as he greeted Voldemort's daughter, but he didn't stick around to listen to their conversation. Instead he headed up to his room, a massive grin plastered all over his face.


	20. Showdown at the Ministry

Once Hermione returned to school after Easter she immediately noticed her father upping the ante with Harry. Almost every morning Harry was tired and restless, complaining about the dreams that haunted his night. Ron had asked about why the lessons with Snape weren't helping the dreams fade, but Harry just claimed that Snape wasn't even trying to help him.

Just over a week after their return to school, Hermione and Ron were sitting in the common room doing some revision. Due to his lack of sleep, Harry had gone off for an afternoon nap. Hermione was just explaining to Ron how to make a strong sleeping potion when Harry came flying down the stairs and sprinted over to them.

"He's got Sirius." Harry panted. "We have to go and save him. Now."

"Slow down mate." Ron said soothingly. "Who's got Sirius?"

"Voldemort." Harry hissed, lowering his voice. "I've just seen him in my dreams. Voldemort had Sirius in the place I've been dreaming about."

"How are we supposed to find him?" Hermione questioned. "You don't even know where you've been dreaming about."

"I do now." Harry proclaimed triumphantly. "Voldemort mentioned a prophecy. He's looking for a prophecy."

"How does that help us?" Hermione asked.

"Because we know where they keep recordings of prophecies." Ron grinned. "Over Easter we heard Sirius and Lupin talking about it. That's what the Order have been guarding all year. That's where dad was hurt, at the Ministry, down in the Department of Mysteries."

"Sirius must have been on guard duty and Voldemort's got to him." Harry said. "Come on, we need to go."

"Hold on, Harry. How can we even trust this dream?" Hermione asked. She knew her arguments wouldn't sway Harry from leaving but she knew as the sensible one in their trio she would be expected to be the cautious one.

"The dreams haven't lied before." Harry pointed out. "It was my dream that saved Arthur."

"Yeah, dad would have died if Harry hadn't warned Dumbledore." Ron said.

"And since Dumbledore isn't here to go to for help, we have to go ourselves." Harry said, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, clearly anxious to be moving.

"How are we going to get to the Ministry?" Hermione asked. "In case you haven't realised, we're up in Scotland and the Ministry is in London. That's a long journey and we don't exactly have access to a floo network or a portkey."

"We're going to fly." Harry announced.

"Fly?" Hermione squealed, her eyes widening in panic. She absolutely hated flying and the thought of flying all the way to London was terrifying.

"I know you don't like it, Hermione, but it's the quickest way." Harry said. "Besides we're not travelling by broom."

"How are we travelling then?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain on the way." Harry said, his patience snapping as he headed for the doors. "Come on."

Hermione and Ron shared a quick look before gathering their wands and racing after Harry. As they headed out of the castle Harry explained his idea of using Thestrals to fly to London. Hagrid had taught a Care of Magical Creatures lesson on the beasts so Hermione and Ron knew they could fly. Harry had apparently also spent some time with Luna, who'd taught him about Thestrals as she went to visit them to bring them food.

"I'm not sure I want to mount an invisible skeleton horse." Ron muttered as they left the school and headed for the Forbidden Forest, where the Thestrals lived.

"Then don't come." Harry snapped at his friend as they entered the clearing where the Thestrals were most often found.

"Come where?" A voice asked from the right of the trio.

Hermione, Harry and Ron spun round to find Ginny sitting on a tree stump. Shortly after spotting the presence of Ron's little sister they spotted Luna and Neville standing patting a baby Thestral. Or at least Hermione and Ron guessed it was a Thestral as they couldn't actually see anything.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked his sister.

"Neville and I are helping Luna feed the Thestrals. Or rather Neville's helping her, since I can't see them." Ginny answered. "And you three never answered my question, where are you going?"

"We're off to London to save Sirius." Harry replied, briefly giving the three students a run-down of the situation.

"We'll come." Ginny announced, quickly jumping up off her tree stump.

"No you will not." Ron declared firmly. "It's dangerous, so you're not coming."

"You can't stop me Ron." Ginny glared at her brother. "I want to help."

"Will the pair of you stop it?" Harry yelled. "Sirius is in danger, we don't have time to argue. I don't care who comes, but anyone who is coming needs to grab a Thestral so we can go."

"There might be a bit of a problem there, Harry." Hermione said. "We can't all see them."

"We'll help you mount them." Neville volunteered. "The people who can see them can help the others."

Harry quickly announced his appreciation and the group set about mounting the Thestrals. Hermione was not happy to climb onto something she couldn't see and she gripped the creature tightly once she was sitting atop of it. Once everyone was set Luna whispered something to the Thestral she was on and the group took off into the air.

"How do we know we're going the right way?" Ron asked, as they flew over Hogwarts.

"The Thestrals are magical, they knew where we want to go." Luna replied. "Plus, I told mine where we're going."

"Great, talking to invisible horses. That seems a safe way to get to the right place." Ron muttered.

Hermione smiled at Ron's sarcasm, but she didn't dare look over at him. She was currently clinging onto the Thestral for dear life and her eyes were tightly shut. The journey couldn't pass quick enough for Hermione and she was trying to keep her mind on other things. As they flew Hermione went over the plan for the night in her head, making sure she knew her small role in proceedings.

Even with the distraction the flight still seemed to take forever and it was dark before Hermione felt the Thestral she was riding on head towards the ground. Once she was sure she was on the ground, Hermione opened her eyes. The Thestrals had landed in a back alleyway somewhere she presumed was London.

"The Ministry's around the corner." Harry announced as the group slid off the Thestrals.

As Harry led the way to the visitor entrance to the Ministry, Hermione slipped to the back of the group. Clearing her mind she thought of Lucius, followed by the dark mark. Putting the two images together in her mind she felt a jolt of power run through her as she sent a quick message to the blond man. The message was just his mark stinging slightly, but it was to let him know they'd arrived at the Ministry.

Once at the visitor's entrance Harry squeezed them all into a muggle phone box and activated the entrance. A tinny voice inquired as to their identity's and purpose of visit, to which Harry rattled off their names and claimed they were on a rescue mission. Hermione was surprised when Harry's claim worked and the phone box began to descend into the ground. When the box jolted to a stop in the Ministry's Atrium, six visitor tags tumbled from a box at the side along with instructions to put them on.

As they raced out of the box, no-one bothered to put their tags on but they did all pick them up. Due to the time of night it was, and the fact it was a weekend, the Atrium was deserted as Harry led the way towards the lifts. Tumbling inside the lift Harry pressed the button that took them down into the Department of Mysteries. The same tinny female voice announced each floor as they passed, until the doors sprung open on the Department of Mysteries. The Department of Mysteries was a circular room with dozens of identical doors.

"Where now?" Hermione asked, looking around. From here on in she had no idea what her father and Lucius were planning, she just knew when the Death Eaters appeared she was to be careful.

"I don't know." Harry admitted. "This isn't like the place I've been dreaming about. The place I've been dreaming about is a room with rows of shining balls, which I'm assuming are prophecies."

"Let's start checking doors." Hermione said, walking into the room and heading for the nearest door.

Pulling the door open Hermione was faced with a room full of time turners. She knew all about time turners from her third year, and knew that wasn't a room they wanted to enter. One accident with a time turner could be catastrophic. Hermione shut the door and just as she was about to head for another door the room seemed to spin.

"What was that?" Ron asked. "What happened?"

Instead of answering, Hermione opened the door she was standing in front of. Instead of the room of time turners she found a room containing what looked like glass aquariums, only instead of fish they contained brains. Shuddering Hermione turned away from the door, but didn't close it.

"Every time you shut a door the room spins." Hermione said. "We need to mark the doors we're checking."

Hermione pulled out her wand and traced a red X on the door, before shutting it. Once again the room span, but this time one door had a blazing red cross to indicate it had been searched.

"Okay, everyone get a door." Harry announced. "Open it and if it isn't the prophecy room, mark it. Do not shut your door, until we're all done."

Following Harry's instructions the six teenagers all stood in front of a door. On Harry's instructions they opened their door and checked what was inside. The first round revealed six rooms they didn't need, but on the second try Neville hit lucky. Once Harry confirmed the room Neville had revealed was indeed the room he'd been dreaming of they all entered it.

Hermione was the last to enter the room and as soon as she was inside the door slammed shut. Whirling round, Hermione caught sight of a familiar pair of grey eyes in the shadows. Smirking at Lucius she turned back around and followed Harry and the others through the small corridors packed with crystal balls. As they moved through the room, Hermione was very aware of the presence of her father's Death Eaters. She could feel hostile eyes following their every move.

"Well, where is he?" Ron hissed to Harry. "There's no sign of Sirius."

"Keep looking." Harry ordered. "He's in here."

"No, he's not." Lucius's cold voice drawled as he stepped from the shadows. Despite the fact he was now wearing his mask Hermione still recognised the voice and she would bet that Harry and possibly Ron could identify it as well so they knew exactly who they were dealing with. "No-one's here, but us."

As he spoke several other Death Eaters emerged from the shadows, surrounding the teenagers. The group moved closer together as they all grabbed their wands and pointed them at the Death Eaters.

"What do you want?" Harry asked.

"The prophecy." Lucius answered. "Only the people it's about can take it from the shelf. You're going to get it for The Dark Lord."

"No." Harry shouted, his eyes darting from side to side as he looked for an escape route.

Lucius smirked at Harry before apparating away with a crack. A second crack sounded almost immediately and before she could react Hermione found a wand pointing at her throat and a strong arm around her waist.

"How about now?" Lucius asked from behind Hermione. "Get me the prophecy or the mudblood gets it."

Harry looked at Hermione, clearly unsure about what to do. Ron however seemed to be in no doubt as he told Harry to just get the prophecy. Following Lucius's directions, Harry found the prophecy at the top of a nearby shelf and proceeded to get it down.

"Hand Hermione over, and you can have the prophecy." Harry said, stopping in front of Lucius.

"Hand the prophecy over and you can have the mudblood." Lucius retorted.

"No." Harry shook his head. "I want Hermione to be safe before you get this."

"You're in no position to bargain, Potter." Lucius hissed. "You've got five minutes to get up to the Atrium and hand me the prophecy or you'll find a dead mudblood waiting for you."

Before anyone had time to digest Lucius's words he apparated away, taking Hermione with him. Once Lucius had gone the rest of the Death Eaters followed, leaving five stunned teenagers behind.

"Let's go." Harry cried, barrelling towards the door.

The five teenagers flew through the Department of Mysteries and hurriedly got into the lift that would take them to the Atrium. Upon arrival in the Atrium they found no sign of Lucius or Hermione. The group looked around frantically, before Ron spotted Hermione lying beside the row of fires.

"Over there." He cried, racing off towards her.

The group all raced over to Hermione, where they found she was breathing but seemed to be unconscious. While Neville and Luna used the fire to floo for help, Ginny and Ron tried to wake Hermione. Harry meanwhile had started looking around for Lucius. He'd just reached the centre of the room and was standing beside the fountain when a shadowy figure appeared out of thin air.

"You." Harry hissed when he spotted Voldemort. "You're not getting the prophecy."

As he spoke Harry hurled the crystal ball to the marble floor, causing it to smash on impact. He had thought Voldemort's reaction would give him time to get away, but The Dark Lord didn't even blink as the prophecy broke. Instead Voldemort raised his wand and shot a curse at Harry.

As the duel began between Voldemort and Harry, Ron and Ginny became aware of what was happening. The two Weasley's were torn between going and helping Harry and staying with Hermione. Hermione had just started to stir and was slowly waking up.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked groggily. She'd been awake the entire time, but wanted it to appear as though she was just coming to.

"You Know Who is here." Ron hissed. "Neville and Luna have gone for help, they should be back soon."

"Harry might not need it." Ginny commented. "Look, Voldemort's just tripped over the fountain."

Hermione and Ron looked to find Voldemort on the floor, Harry hovering over him. Voldemort still had his wand and was fighting back, but Harry had him on the ropes and wouldn't let him get back to his feet. As Hermione, Ron and Ginny watched in fascination the floo network sounded behind them and Sirius and Remus stepped out. Moments later the other fires in the Ministry activated and a lot more of the Order arrived, including Dumbledore. Alongside Dumbledore was the Minister for Magic, who nearly jumped out of his skin as he spotted Voldemort on the floor.

"This is for my parents!" Harry suddenly bellowed, before a red jet of light left his wand.

Everyone on the room watched as the spell hit Voldemort directly in the chest, sending him slumping to the floor. Hermione's heart stopped when she saw her father fall, but a second later when a light surrounded him and he seemingly turned to dust she breathed a sigh of relief. So far everything looked to have worked, she just needed a sign to say her father was safely at home.

"What happened?" Harry asked in a panic. "I meant to stun him."

"I think you killed him." Dumbledore said, stepping forward. "From the way he's disintegrated I would say he's been messing with magic too powerful for him to handle. Even a simple spell aimed right at him was enough to finish him off."

Everyone remained in silence for several minutes before the Order bustled into action, checking everyone was okay and dealing with what had happened. In the midst of the aftermath Hermione received her sign from her father, via her locket burning. Since Hermione was being checked over by Lupin at the time she couldn't look at the message, but when she was able to check it later that night she was pleased to find the words 'I'm okay' on the back of her locket.


	21. Looking to the future

Events at the Ministry had a wide spread effect and changes were made both at Hogwarts and outside of the school. The first thing that happened was the entire wizarding community discovered that Harry and Dumbledore had been telling the truth all along and that Voldemort had indeed been back. Harry was also hailed a hero for defeating Voldemort before he got a chance to wreak more havoc on the world.

With the truth about Voldemort revealed Fudge looked incompetent for denying his return and promptly lost his job as Minister. As one of Fudge's biggest supporters, Umbridge also lost her position both at Hogwarts and at the Ministry. Her departure at Hogwarts left the door open for Dumbledore's return as Headmaster.

Dumbledore's return was treated as a celebration amongst many, hence the feast that Draco and his friends were currently forced to attend. Everyone else in The Great Hall seemed to be having a great time, but not the Slytherins and especially not Draco. The blond was distinctly unhappy with events at both the Ministry and Hogwarts. With Umbridge gone her Inquisitorial Squad had been disbanded, meaning Draco was back to just being a prefect. While he was unhappy about his loss of power Draco was more concerned about the fall of Voldemort, and more importantly how his daughter was faring with losing her father.

Since Easter Draco hadn't managed to get The Dark Lady out of his head. For the first week of term all his thoughts had been about their growing attraction and potential relationship, but since Voldemort's death his thoughts had been filled with concern for her. Draco desperately wished he could contact her and tell her how sorry he was for her loss and comfort her in person, but the best he'd been able to do was write to Lucius and ask his father to pass on his condolences.

Lucius had also been dragged into events of the Ministry, although he'd emerged without a blemish to his name much to Draco's relief. After Voldemort was killed Potter and Weasley both swore that the Death Eater that tried to get the prophecy was Lucius. Lucius however denied the allegations and produced a cast iron alibi in the form of a few officials from the French Ministry. Despite his alibi, Potter and Weasley refused to back down and would rant on to anyone who would listen that Lucius was lying and that he'd been at the Ministry.

Unfortunately for Potter and Weasley it was there word against Lucius's and despite his father's dark reputation, he was the one people believed. It didn't help Potter and Weasley's case that none of their friends could back them up. Lovegood and Longbottom didn't know Lucius to say whether or not it was him and the Weasley girl had only met him briefly a few times, so she wasn't sure either. Potter and Weasley's best chance of being backed up came in the form of Granger, who was apparently held hostage by his father as he tried to get what he wanted from Potter. Granger however had been struck on the head sometime during the altercation and her memories of what had happened were fuzzy, meaning she couldn't remember the voice of the Death Eater who threatened her life.

"Ugh, I'm so sick of this." Theo grumbled from beside Draco. "Who wants to celebrate having bloody Dumbledore back as Headmaster?"

"Tell me about it." Blaise complained from Draco's other side. "As if having him back wasn't bad enough there's the Gryffindors to contend with, smug bastards. I swear if Potter's head gets any bigger he won't be able to fit into the place."

Draco agreed with his friend as he turned to glare at the Gryffindor table. Potter was sitting right at the centre of the action with Weasley and Granger sitting at either side of him. Almost everyone nearby was hanging on his every word and looking at him as though he was something special. The Weasley girl was sitting a few seats away from him and Draco felt sick witnessing the love-struck looks she was throwing Potter's direction.

"I've had enough." Draco declared, tearing his eyes away from the Gryffindors. "I'm getting out of here."

As Draco stood up, Theo and Blaise scrambled to their feet and joined their friend. The trio had made it to the back of The Great Hall and were about to leave the room when Dumbledore's voice drew attention to them.

"Mr Malfoy, Mr Nott and Mr Zabini, where do you think you three are going?"

"I'm feeling nauseous." Draco answered. With all the gloating and celebrations floating around the room he wasn't lying, he did feel sick.

"Mr Nott, Mr Zabini, are you also feeling ill?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Yes." Blaise nodded. "I'm as sick as a dog."

"Me too." Theo added. "If I stay here much longer I'm going to throw up."

"Well I suggest the three of you head back to your common room." Dumbledore said.

"That's what we were trying to do, you stupid old fool." Draco muttered as he pulled open the door and strode out of The Great Hall.

Once out of The Great Hall the trio of Slytherins headed outside for some fresh air. Wandering down towards the Black Lake they sat on the banks of the moonlit lake and threw rocks into the water.

"What do you think is going to happen now?" Theo asked.

"What do you mean?" Blaise asked.

"I mean the Death Eaters." Theo explained. "Do you think they'll carry on or will The Dark Lord's demise stop them?"

"I think we should wait and see." Draco told his friends. He didn't know for sure but something told him The Dark Lady wouldn't leave her father's death unavenged and he could certainly see her taking over the helm with the Death Eaters.

**[][][][][]**

With a great deal of effort Hermione managed to join in the celebrations after events at the Ministry and she was confident no-one realised she was faking her happiness. Both Harry and Ron were pretty unbearable to be around as they gloated over what had happened. Once Umbridge was sacked and Dumbledore had returned they were even worse, and the constant attention they were getting wasn't helping their over inflated opinions of themselves.

The only time the pair were less than happy was when Lucius produced an alibi for the night of the battle at the Ministry. Even after the alibi was produced Harry and Ron continued to swear Lucius was there and they would tell anyone who would listen that he was a liar. The pair were also disappointed when Hermione claimed not to be able to remember much of what happened at the Ministry, therefore she couldn't pick out the Death Eater who'd grabbed her. Hermione suspected Harry and Ron were disappointed that she didn't just agree with them, but considering the circumstances they didn't argue when she said she couldn't remember.

Once things had calmed down, Hermione was finally able to sneak off and visit her father. Voldemort had survived the battle with Harry unscathed, but with every visit Hermione could see him getting weaker and weaker. She slowly watched as her father lost more magic and started to look his age. As sad as it was, Hermione was just grateful that at least he was still alive. Even with his magic rapidly fading he hadn't as of yet slunk back into the terribly weak state he'd been in during the early years of her life.

As well as visiting her father, Hermione kept in contact with Lucius. Almost immediately after the incident at the Ministry, Lucius had gathered the Death Eaters and announced that The Dark Lady was grieving, but would call a meeting when she was ready to announce her plans. Lucius had also told everyone to keep a low profile and he was constantly checking on a few of the more troublesome Death Eaters to ensure they didn't step out of line.

Satisfied that Lucius was managing the Death Eaters and her father was still okay, Hermione turned her attention to her upcoming exams. If everything went according to plan she would be in charge of the Death Eaters and would never need her exam results to get a job, but school was still important to her and Hermione was determined to finish the year as she had done her others, as the top student in her year.

When the final exam was over, Hermione was confident she had achieved her goal. All the exams had gone swimmingly and she hadn't struggled with any of them. Harry and Ron were a different matter altogether and as the trio headed outside after their final exam the boys did nothing but moan.

"Will you two stop complaining." Hermione said as she sat down on the grass beside the Black Lake. "Exams are over, you can't do any more. I'm sure the pair of you did the best you could."

"Yeah, we did." Harry agreed. "We've only got another week or so left at school, I suggest we enjoy it and stop worrying."

"I can't believe it's nearly the summer again." Ron sighed, lying back on the grass. "The year's passed so quickly."

"That's because it's been non-stop." Harry chuckled, lying down beside Ron. "Between Umbridge and Voldemort, we barely had a moment's peace."

"Do you think next year will be boring?" Ron asked. "I mean, there's no more dark wizards out there to cause trouble."

"I hope next year is peaceful." Harry said. "But there is still a potential danger out there. Voldemort wasn't alone, his Death Eaters might still carry on his work."

"But they've been silent since his death." Ron argued. "I bet they've all gone into hiding."

"We can only hope." Harry sighed. "But Sirius reckons the Order are still proceeding with caution. They're prepared for retaliation, but they're hoping it doesn't come."

"When did you speak to Sirius?" Hermione asked Harry. "I thought it was too dangerous for him to owl in case it was intercepted by the Ministry."

"I haven't told you yet, have I?" Harry grinned excitedly as he sat up.

"Told us what?" Ron questioned.

"When we go home, I'm going to live with Sirius." Harry announced. "Dumbledore's spoken to the new Minister and he's going to give him a pardon. Sirius is going to be my legal guardian and I don't have to go back to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon."

"That's great Harry." Hermione said. "How long have you know this?"

"A couple of days, but with exams I didn't want to get too unfocused so I kind of pushed it to the back of my mind." Harry replied. "Anyway Dumbledore caught me in the corridor and took me to his office. He apologised for the way he's been treating me and explained what he's done with Sirius."

"Did he say why he was treating you so badly?" Hermione asked. She'd never quite understood Dumbledore's behaviour towards Harry this last year as previously he'd never made any secret of the fact Harry was a favourite student of his.

"He was trying to keep me safe." Harry answered. "He was worried Voldemort might target me even more if he knew Dumbledore was so fond of me."

Hermione thought the excuse was pitiful, but Harry seemed more than content with it. Instead of saying anything she merely smiled and asked Harry more about the situation with Sirius. When Harry explained that Dumbledore had managed to get a pardon for Sirius merely by talking to the new Minister of Magic, Hermione frowned. A pardon shouldn't have been issued without some sort of proof of innocence and the fact the new Minister hadn't bothered with proof and just trusted Dumbledore's word was bothersome. Hermione made a mental note to talk to Lucius about the new Minister, if he was someone that was close to Dumbledore they needed to get rid of him.

"This summer will be so cool." Ron declared happily, drawing Hermione out of her worries about the Minister. "We can spend nearly all of it together."

"I know." Harry grinned at his friend. "Hermione, you'll have to try and come over some time."

"I'll try, but I'm usually busy in the summer." Hermione replied. "My parents like to spend time with me since they don't see me that often."

It was true that Hermione was often busy in the summer and spent time with her parents, but this year she would be even busier. The summer holidays seemed much too short for all Hermione wanted to accomplish and all she would have to do as she took control of the Death Eaters and planned the downfall of Dumbledore and the Order.

**To Be Continued.**

* * *

**A/N – So this is the end of The Dark Lady Rises. Part 2 – The Dark Lady Rules, is already finished and the first chapter should be posted before the end of the week. Part 2 is going to be rated M, due to the developing relationship between Hermione and Draco and for a couple of darker chapters. It's also a lot longer than this part and will deal with year 6 and 7 at school, which given events of this part will mean things will run very differently. **

**I want to thank everyone for reading this story and for leaving such great reviews. I hope you continue to read The Dark Lady trilogy, and I hope you all enjoy what's to come. **


	22. Part 2

**Just a quick note to say that the Part 2 – The Dark Lady Rules has now been posted and is rated M.**

**Thank you to everyone who has read Part 1 of The Dark Lady Trilogy, and I hope you read and enjoy the rest of the story.**


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